TN Assembly: Cong runs out of ammo?

(November 08, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) A state of confusion is prevailing over convening a meeting of Congress MLAs to discuss strategies to be followed at the Tamilnadu Assembly session which starts on 10 November.

Earlier, it was announced that the meeting would be held on 6 November.

However, it was cancelled by the floor leader of the party D Sudarsanam. Following this, five legislators of the Congress convened a meeting at the MLAs Hostel and said that they would raise various issues during the Assembly session.

Meanwhile, an announcement was made by party chief whip Peter Alphonse on Friday that the MLAs meet would be held at 5 pm on 10 November, the first day of the Assembly session.

This was followed by a ‘corrected announcement’ by Peter, which said that the conclave was advanced to 9 November. It is said that pressure from some MLAs to arrange the meeting before the Assembly session was the reason behind the change of decision.

It may be noted that even after an announcement from the high command that the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet scheduled on Thursday had been cancelled, five of the party MLAs convened a conclave of sorts at the MLA hostel here.

The legislators, it is learnt, expressed their ‘bitterness’ on the ruling DMK over various issues during the meeting, including its soft corner for those supporting the banned LTTE.

MLAs Jayakumar, Arul Anbarasu, Asen Ali and Rani Venkatesan took part in the meeting held at the room allotted to legislator Palanisamy, who reportedly owes his allegiance to Union Minister EVKS Elangovan.

Speaking to reporters later, they said that they received the information that the MLAs meeting of the party was cancelled only after reaching Chennai.

‘The meeting would have become a field of debate had it happened as planned. We will raise our voice against those supporting the LTTE in the coming Assembly session. The Chief Minister had earlier announced that law would its duty on the issue. But nothing has happened so far,’ they said.

Stating that those expressing solidarity to the banned organisation should be booked under the National Security Act, the Congress legislators expressed their doubt that arms were smuggled to the Tigers during a recent rally organised by film directors in Rameswaram.

Sudarsanam released a statement Wednesday morning that the Congress MLAs meeting was postponed due to the inability of both Vyalar Ravi and Arun Kumar to take part in the deliberations as they were busy on election campaign in other States.

Meanwhile, C Gnanasekaran, R M Palanisamy and Arul Anbarasu, all legislators of the Congress told News Today that they would raise the issue of release of MDMK leaders Vaiko and Kannappan in the forthcoming session of the Assembly. - Sri Lanka Guardian