As if the fall of the Congress government in Puducherry wasn’t a fiasco enough, the intellectual party high command sitting in 10, Janpath has made things worse by not giving a ticket to former Chief Minister V Narayanasamy. The Congress on Tuesday announced 14 out its 15 candidates for the elections in Puducherry but the one notable name that remained missing was of Narayanasamy and chatter quickly began to grow around his axing.
The unceremonious dumping of the Congress leader has been posited to his recklessness, inability to foreshadow the events leading up to the vote of no confidence motion and mostly, the loss of face for Rahul Gandhi when Narayansamy wrongly translated the complaint of a woman during one of Gandhi’s rather ludicrous public meetings.
A Congress leader whilst speaking to The Indian Express remarked that it was the ‘Translation controversy’ where Narayansamy flipped the question of the complaining women on its head in the presence of Congress scion Rahul Gandhi that upset the party high command and led to his ticket cancellation.
“The Chief Minister was confident. The party went by what he said (No confidence motion). In hindsight, we should have been more cautious. Look at the way he twisted a complaint made by a woman at a public interaction held by Rahul Gandhi in Puducherry….That happened in Gandhi’s presence….That incident was very embarrassing,” the unnamed leader said.
Read more: With Puducherry bastion falling, South India has become Congress-mukt
Reported by TFI earlier, a fisherwoman from Solai Nagar complained to Rahul Gandhi that the Chief Minister had not visited her family in the aftermath of a cyclone. “The Sea is like this only. Nobody gave as any support. Even him [CM Narayanasamy], did he visit us during cyclone aftermath?” she was heard saying.
The translator, who was no less than the Chief Minister himself, against whom the fisherwoman was complaining, however, had the audacity of turning her complaint into a praise for himself. Ex-CM Narayanasamy told Rahul Gandhi that the woman said, “During Cyclone Nivar, I [Chief Minister] came and visited the area, I gave her relief. That is what she is telling.”
Whatever the case may be, Narayansamy was Congress’ best bet for fashioning any comeback in the state. Some of the sympathy votes that could have gone his way and helped the party will surely be gobbled up by the opposition. And once again, all this has been done to satiate the ego of one Rahul Gandhi who was apparently miffed with the former CM.
Lol Narayanswamy lied in the face of his people and his leader. I am surprised that Rahul actually took him to task. Maybe he is not completely hopeless but it’s a really low bar to set a standard for him