Ahead of the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu in April-May this year, the Congress party’s state unit saw multiple appointments by the interim party chief, Sonia Gandhi. In totality, 32 vice-presidents, 57 general secretaries, 104 secretaries, 56 executive committee members, 32 ex-officio members, and 200 odd other members were appointed to the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC). In the aftermath of such appointments, one would have expected the TNCC to project itself as one big happy family. However, the state unit of the party has been exposed to be a completely divided house.
Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and an MP himself from Sivaganga constituency took to Twitter to rubbish such grand appointments made by the Congress President, saying, “These jumbo committees serve no purpose…None will have any authority which means no accountability.” Karti even tagged the official Twitter handles of Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, apart from those of KC Venugopal and the party’s Tamil Nadu unit. For this tweet, the son of P Chidambaram was humiliatingly roasted by K Mahendran, who was on Saturday appointed Tamil Nadu party general secretary.
These jumbo committees serve no purpose. None will have any authority which means no accountability. @INCIndia @INCTamilNadu @kcvenugopalmp @dineshgrao @RahulGandhi @priyankagandhi https://t.co/C8p4nIwNSX
— Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) January 2, 2021
@kcvenugopalmp @dineshgrao @RahulGandhi @priyankagandhi @INCIndia
— Mahendran (@iycmahe) January 2, 2021
Many hard-working Youth Congress, NSUI, Mahila Congress, and scheduled caste department functionaries have made it into the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee, Mahendran said in his tweet. “Some (who) became MP because of their father can’t understand,” he added, quoting Karti Chidambaram’s tweet. It is perhaps for the first time that a Congress leader has taken on his colleague with such vigour, and cited his nepotistic existence within the party as a reason for Karti failing to understand the significance of such appointments.
Karti Chidambaram’s only claim to fame is that he is P Chidambaram’s son, and K Mahendran grabbed the former by the jugular when he said that junior Chidambaram had become an MP only due to his father. Interestingly, in his reply to Karti Chidambaram, Mahendran also tagged Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. It would not be an overstatement by far to say that the newly appointed Tamil Nadu Congress General Secretary seems to have taken potshots at the Gandhi family as well, because both Priyanka and Rahul have nothing much to account for except for their surnames, passed on to them by their father – Rajiv Gandhi.
Karti Chidambaram has been following his father’s lead, as the former Finance Minister had given his all-out support to the 23 dissenting party leaders who had written to Sonia Gandhi calling for reforms within the Congress last year. P Chidambaram had himself backed calls for elections at every level and also demanded the reconstitution of the Congress Parliamentary Board. Evidently now, as the elections of Tamil Nadu’s state assembly approach, the Congress’ state unit is being exposed as a divided house, where there seems to be a general sense of hatred towards the nepotism and influence of the Chidambarams.
