K Selvaperunthagai
Credit: PTI Photo
Chennai: K Selvaperunthagai will take over as the President of the faction-ridden Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) on Wednesday becoming the first Dalit to hold the post in over four decades.
Selvaperunthagai, MLA from Sriperumbudur and a strong votary of maintaining good ties with DMK, is literally an “outsider” in the Congress as he joined the party only in 2010 after his stints with the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), a Dalit party, and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
The appointment, which was made by Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on February 17, was delayed for about four months following protests by MLAs and senior leaders of the party following speculation about Selvaperunthagai making the cut to be the TNCC chief in October last year.
Though nearly half-a-dozen MLAs protested the move in October, the appointment of Selvaperunthagai hasn’t evoked much opposition, with apparently the Lok Sabha elections weighing on everyone’s mind. The 59-year-old MLA, who was the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, piped Karur MP S Jothimani and former Karnataka-cadre IAS officer Sasikanth Senthil to be appointed as the new TNCC chief.
Party sources told DH that Selvaperunthagai was Kharge’s choice as he felt the party legislator with wide experience can “rejuvenate” the party which is in an alliance with the DMK.
Selvaperunthagai will take over from K S Alagiri, a former MLA and MP who was brought to politics by the late G K Moopanar, at 3.30 pm on Wednesday in the presence of AICC in-charge for Tamil Nadu, Ajoy Kumar, former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, and ex-TNCC chiefs E V K S Elangovan, S Thirunavukarasar, K V Thangabalu, and M Krishnaswamy among others.
He will be the first Dalit leader to hold the post after L Ilaya Perumal who was the TNCC chief from 1979 to 1980.
The first challenge for Selvaperunthagai will be to ensure that the seat-sharing talks with the DMK for the Lok Sabha polls is smooth and prevent rebellion in the candidate selection. He will also be under pressure to ensure that no legislator leaves the party amid speculation that Vilavancode MLA Vijayadharani is in talks with the BJP as her demand to allot the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat to her was rejected by the High Command.
Selvaperunthagai is the second ‘outsider’ to be made the TNCC chief in recent time after Thirunavukarasar, who helmed the state Congress from September 2016 to February 2019 before Alagiri replaced him. While Thirunavukarasar had his political teeth cut under the legendary M G Ramachandran and the Dravidian movement, Selvaperunthagai is a party hopper with stints in VCK and BSP before he joined the Congress in 2010.
His appointment also assumes significance as it comes just months before the Lok Sabha elections in which the Congress hopes to contest nine seats in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry.