You could say there is a bit of a tempest in the making for the Congress in Tamil Nadu. This past Friday, Karur MP S Jothimani made some strong claims of wide-ranging impropriety in the run-up to the April 23 polls. She is not just asking for an AICC probe; she is also sounding an alarm over the toll it is taking on the morale of the cadre and the party’s reputation.
“It was all put in place to make room for certain names,” is how Jothimani puts it. She says that behind the scenes of so-called internal surveys, you can find your share of graft. The kind of workers who have been around and have a shot at winning were passed over, while you had new faces with no real prospects being put forward in constituencies that were worked out in backroom deals.
Then you have the ones they put up who either up and left the party or went quiet as soon as the election was over. It makes you wonder what they were thinking and who gave them the nod in the first place.
Why the allegation matters now
Jothimani sees this as part of a trend that has been showing up in one state or another. In her reading of things, when you have a shoddy way of picking your horses and handing out tickets, it doesn’t take long for complaints to come in and for you to see it in your results.
To her, setting up a committee to look at anti-party behaviour but not to question how the seats were parceled out is just a way to shield the people who ran the show. What is needed is some straight talk and a way for the people on the ground to be heard.
In short, Jothimani has four things on her mind:
– You have the pre-chosen candidate and the constituency is made to fit him
– The kind of corruption that is masked by internal data
– Old hands being put aside for some who are not up to the task
– And then there are the nominees who pack it in after the poll
Inside the claims: surveys, sidelining, and committees
The committee that was in charge of all this was under Girish Chodankar, the in-charge for the state. Jothimani is of the opinion that if there are any bones to pick with that committee, only the All India Congress Committee is in a position to sort it out.
She doesn’t think the office bearers of the TNCC have the clout to do a proper job of it. An inquiry from the centre is the only way to put things right and get the workers to have some faith again.
Call for an AICC-led probe
So the MP is pressing for a full-fledged look into the whole affair and for those at fault to be dealt with. You can’t put the confidence of the party back unless you know where the shoe pinches and do something about it.
If you don’t, it will be a problem on a national scale. The Congress has a duty to stand up to the BJP and Modi, and she gives Rahul Gandhi his due for not backing down from that. But you have to have your house in order to do it.
Reactions and what it means for the cadre
Her post made it clear there was a lot of wrong-doing in the selection cycle, and it didn’t take long for some to chime in. One or two have called it a case of Congress against itself in the state, and have seconded the charges of skulduggery in the ticketing and survey business.
Jothimani says these goings-on are chipping away at the resolve of workers in every block and district. The onus is on the leadership to hear them out and put in place some rules that are fair and can be followed.
Some have pointed to the numbers: five is all the Congress won in the last round in Tamil Nadu. And of course, there is the fact that they only got into power after parting ways with the DMK and inking a deal with Vijay’s TVK.
What comes next
Unless you get to the bottom of how the candidates for the April 23 contest were chosen, any kind of discipline is a half-measure, Jothimani would have you believe. She wants the AICC to go over the books and the outcomes.
And she is after some swift action to show that there are consequences. Tagging in party president Mallikarjun Kharge, she is saying that if we are to have any electoral reform in the party, let us start in Tamil Nadu.
Put simply: set the process to rights or you will be in for more of the same. It is up to the top to decide if they are ready to face what has been going on in their own ranks.
