Disgruntled over non-allotment of tickets by the party high command for the April 13 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, Congressmen voiced their strong opposition against incumbent state Congress chief K. V. Thangkabalu by engaging in sporadic violence across the state on Thursday.
The State Congress headquarters Satyamurthy Bhavan turned out to be the first victim of the cadre’s fury as over a dozen Congressmen stormed in and ransacked the building. The windowpanes, particularly glass partitions, in several rooms on the first floor and the conference room in the ground floor were damaged. The irate cadres did not spare even computers and printers there.
The attackers were believed to be supporters of a Congress councilor Mr Chellappan, who had protested against the allotment of Thiru Vi Ka Nagar constituency to Chennai-based Dr C Natesan, an erstwhile TMC man who had not been active party member even after the party merger. Chennai police have registered a case against Mr Chellappan in connection with the attack.
Likewise, nearly a hundred supporters of Mr Karte Thiyagarajan enacted a ‘mourning’ scene in front of Mylapore tahsildar office while Ms Jayanthi Thangkabalu was filing her nomination there. The protestors carried a ‘padai’ (a movable pedestal to carry a deceased person to the graveyard) symbolizing the gradual destruction of the state Congress.