The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Work for DPA victory, Congressmen told

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 19, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Work for DPA victory, Congressmen told

Special Correspondent

Put party above personal interest: M. Krishnasswamy

WARM GREETINGS: New TNCC president M. Krishnasswamy with Ms. Jayanthi Natarajan MP and Union Ministers G.K. Vasan and E.V.K.S. Elangovan at the party head quarters in Chennai on Saturday. — Photo: Vino John

CHENNAI: The new Tamil Nadu Congress president, M. Krishnasswamy, has appealed to party cadres to remain united and work for the victory of the Democratic Progressive Alliance led by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M. Karunanidhi in the coming Assembly election.

Mr. Krishnasswamy, who addressed party workers on Thursday after assuming office, charged that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who is also general secretary of the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, was making all out efforts to break the Congress party. It was time to retrieve the State from the "clutches" of Ms. Jayalalithaa. She was under the impression that the State was her fiefdom and she could succeed by using money power, he said.

As the coming three months before the Assembly election would be a crucial period, he appealed to the party cadres to be ready for making any sacrifice to negate the attempts of Ms. Jayalalithaa. He wanted them to put the party ahead of their interests in their endeavour to achieve their goal of "removing the Jayalalithaa Government." The TNCC chief in a letter to the party president, Sonia Gandhi, thanked her for entrusting to him the great responsibility of leading the party in the State at this crucial stage. He said he would nurture the "Congress brotherhood" so that the State unit would soon blossom into a more understanding and accommodative "political family" which would unitedly fight for the betterment of the State and for the upliftment of the weaker sections of society.

Earlier on his arrival from Delhi, he was given a rousing reception by partymen. Mr. Krishnasswamy on his way to Satyamurthi Bhavan garlanded the statues of Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi, Kamaraj and Pasumpon Muthuramlinga Thevar. He also paid respects at the memorial of Karuppiah Moopanar.

At the party office he was received and greeted by Union Ministers G.K. Vasan and E.V.K.S. Elangovan, former TNCC president K.V. Thankabalu, all-India spokesperson of the party, Jayanthi Natarajan, State treasurer D. Sudarasanam, and S. Peter Alphonse.

It was a virtual stampede at the TNCC president's room as party workers in their eagerness to greet the new president gatecrashed.

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