Cadres up in arms

By Our Tamil Nadu Bureau

CHENNAI, APRIL 18. The after-effects of the bitter seat-sharing exercise between the AIADMK and the TMC-Congress combine continues to plague the two Congress formations. The non- allocation of seats in the traditional Congress strongholds and by implication the denial of seats to some sitting MLAs as well as ticket aspirants, has sparked strong protests and threatens to snowball into a major political crisis.

Many of the sitting MLAs from the TMC and district functionaries of the TMC-Congress combine have taken to the streets and announced their decision to contest the May 10 elections as independents. District units have adopted resolutions decrying the way in which their leadership has `sacrificed' the interest of the parties.

In Melur, near Madurai, a sitting TMC legislator, Mr. K.V.V. Rajamanickam, threw his hat into the ring - announcing his candidature as an independent, to ``protest against the snatching away of Melur by the AIADMK''. His decision to contest was taken at a meeting of the cadres today. After the meeting, Mr. Rajamanickam said he would file his nomination on April 20. He told the volunteers that he had not yet decided to join the Democratic Forum launched by the former TMC leader, Mr. P. Chidambaram. He led a procession through the town and garlanded the statue of Kakkan at Chekkadi.

The problem took an even more serious turn in Salem, where the West District president of the TMC, Mr. K. Mariappan, decided to quit his post ``owning moral responsibility for failing to get even a single seat for the TMC in Salem district''. In his resignation letter sent to the party president, he poured out the feelings of the cadres who had stood by the leadership and organised many successful conferences in Salem. And yet, not a single seat was allotted to the party in this district.

It was the turn of the Congress to face the wrath of its district units in Vellore. Two party rebels were among the seven candidates who filed their nominations for five out of the 12 Assembly seats in the district today.

Mr. N.M. Dhanapal filed his papers for the Gudiyatham and Katpadi constituencies, taken by the AIADMK and the PMK in the `secular front'. Mr. M.P. Natarajan filed his nomination as an independent in Vaniyambadi, where the Indian National League will be contesting on behalf of the alliance.

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Section  : Southern States
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