Tamil Nadu   

Congress workers begin canvassing

S.Vydhianathan

Fear that allotment of fewer wards would affect its chances in indirect elections

CHENNAI: With Congress getting 25 per cent share of seats in the Democratic Progressive Alliance for the ensuing local body elections , the hitherto "deserted" party headquarters Sathyamurthi Bhavan is bubbling with activity.

Wednesday being the last date for filing nominations, party cadres from different parts of the State have descended on Sathyamurthi Bhavan and also at the offices of Union Ministers to canvass support either for their own candidature or for their supporters.

Party functionaries said tickets were being given on "quota basis". With so many groups in the party, each group leader is given certain percentage of seats based on his strength and the leader in turn selects candidates.

Partymen are however sceptical whether the share allotted would be applied at the ward level in different corporations, municipalities and panchayat unions.

They alleged that local Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders might not be willing to give 25 per cent of the seats to the Congress and might argue that the agreement was confined to mayors, municipal chairmen and panchayat union chairmen posts and not to the wards.

Congress workers fearthat allotment of fewer wards to the party would affect its chances in indirect elections in local bodies, which were allotted to the party. They were irked at the party being treated on a par with the Pattali Makkal Katchi. They admitted that the PMK had a strong presence in north Tamil Nadu but down south the party had no significant strength.

Party men said the State leaders were to be blamed for the sorry state of affairs. The internal squabbling in the party had affected its bargaining capacity with the DMK, which had exploited the situation to its advantage.

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