Months ahead of the Lok Sabha election, the All India Congress Committee on Saturday appointed former Cuddalore Lok Sabha MP KS Alagiri as its Tamil Nadu President. Alagiri has replaced S Thirunavukkarasar, who was appointed to the post in September 2016. In addition to this, four working Presidents have also been appointed.
In a statement, KC Venugopal, the AICC general secretary, who announced the appointment of Alagiri and others stated, “Hon'ble Congress President has approved the proposal for appointment of President and four Working Presidents of Tamil Nadu PCC....The party appreciates contribution of outgoing TNCC president S Thirunavukkarasar.”
தமிழ்நாடு காங்கிரஸ் கமிட்டியின் புதிய தலைவராக திரு கே.எஸ் அழகிரி அவர்களை அகில இந்திய காங்கிரஸ் கமிட்டி தலைவர் திரு @RahulGandhi அவர்கள் நியமித்தார். உடன் புதிய செயல் தலைவர்களாக திரு @vasanthakumarH , திரு கே.ஜெயக்குமார், டாக்டர் விஷ்ணு பிரசாத், திரு @MayuraSJ ஆகியோர் நியமனம். pic.twitter.com/UTMDzTmzBR
— Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (@INCTamilNadu) February 2, 2019
Speaking to news channels after his appointment, Alagiri emphasised that his appointment did not reflect a lack of trust in the outgoing TNCC chief.
“With LS polls a few months away, AICC president Rahul Gandhi has changed the PCC chiefs in several states. Tamil Nadu is among them,” he said.
Alagiri represented the Cuddalore constituency in the 14th General election, and has also been MLA for two terms. He graduated from Annamalai University and belongs to Cuddalore district in north Tamil Nadu. Sources in the Congress-DMK alliance tell TNM that while the DMK Chief MK Stalin did not see eye to eye with Thirunavukkarasar, the party has nothing to do with the change in guard.
"There are a lot of internal problems with the party and several factions were against him. We know very little about Alagiri, just that he was earlier in the P Chidambaram camp," says the DMK source.
The newly appointed working Presidents are H Vasantha Kumar, K Jayakumar, MK Vishnu Prasad and Mayura Jayakumar.
According to reports, Vasantha Kumar is the younger brother of Congress veteran Kumari Ananthan, whose daughter Tamilisai Soundararajan is currently the BJP chief for Tamil Nadu. Vishnu Prasad is the son of former TNCC president M Krishnaswamy while Jayakumar is a former MLA who has won the Assembly polls twice from a reserved constituency in Namakkal. He was also the AICC secretary for 15 years, and handled Andhra Pradesh and the North East.