On a day of drama in front of Mr Thangkabalu’s house where two women attempted ‘self immolation,’ the Congress announced a minor reshuffle in its list of candidates. While the state party president Thangkabalu lost a couple of his nominees, he still managed to save the Mylapore constituency for his wife Ms Jayanthi Thangkabalu.
A day ahead of the last day for filing nominations for the April 13 Assembly polls, the Congress high command, on Friday, also announced the names of candidates for Ramanathapuram, Tirupur (south) and Poonamallee (reserved) seats, which had been kept in abeyance earlier.
Sitting MLA Hasan Ali retained his Ramanathapuram seat while union home minister P. Chidambaram’s supporter and Tirupur deputy mayor Senthil Kumar had been handpicked by the high command for Tirupur (south).
While managing to get a ticket for his supporter Mr G V Mathiayalagan in Poonamallee (reserve) seat, the state Congress chief lost his loyalist Mr Sivalingam, who was replaced by Vasan loyalist and sitting Pallipattu MLA Dr ESS Raman in Tiruttani seat. The changes came a day after Mr Vasan called on Ms Sonia Gandhi to reportedly complain about Thangkabalu’s manoeuvres.
Similarly, Ms Haseena Sayeed, a beautician who offers beauty tips in Thangkabalu owned Mega TV, has been replaced by Mr Maqbool Jaan. Another Thangkabalu loyalist Mr Robert Bruce also loses his nomination, to be replaced by Mr J G Prince, a Vasan supporter, in Colachel.
The eleventh hour reshuffle was attributed to the disgruntlement among the party rank and file in TN over Mr Thangkabalu walking away with more than the expected number of seats for his candidates.
The AIADMK is hoping to get its biggest harvest from the Congress seats, particularly in Chennai, where relatively inexperienced Congress candidates, barring Mr Chellakumar in T Nagar and Mr Mano in Royapuram, are pitted against AIADMK heavyweights. To make matter’s worse for Thangkabalu, several rebelling Congressmen gave ammunition to the opposition by continuing their anti-Thangkabalu agitation for the third day in succession, particularly objecting to Jayanthi Thangkabalu’s candidature. Two women cadres attempted “self immolation” while a few others attempted to barge into their house.