Chennai: Peeved over the nomination of Jayanthi Thangkabalu, wife of TNCC president K V Thangkabalu, as a candidate from the Mylapore constituency for the April 13 election, and the denial of seats for many other aspirants in Chennai, party workers went on the rampage at Sathyamurthi Bhavan, the party’s state headquarters, besides burning effigies of Thangkabalu and also his wife.
When Thangkabalu and his wife came to file their nomination papers at the tahsildar office on Greenways Road, they were welcomed by around 300 angry protesters, who not only burned an effigy of Jayanthi, but also tried to stop the couple from entering the premises. Police had to intervene and remove the protesters - 77 of them were taken into custody.
The protests that began in Chennai on Wednesday evening immediately after the list of candidates was announced continued on Thursday with Youth Congress cadre, led by Vijay Sekar, president of Mylapore constituency, holding a mock funeral procession for Jayanthi at Greenways Road.
Vijay Sekar told Express that the Youth Congress had worked hard during the past one-and-half years and enrolled 5,000 members in Mylapore locality. Around 35 local candidates had sought tickets, but Thangkabalu had used his position to get the seat for his wife.
‘Karate’ Thiagarajan, one of the aspirants for the seat, said that Thangkabalu was inaccessible to party cadre and his wife never had a good rapport with them.
However, Thangkabalu denied all the charges and said that the candidate was selected by the AICC. He said his wife was a member of the Congress high committee and director of the TV channel that had been promoting the party’s interest among the people. He said in his 40 years with the Congress, he had never encouraged his family members coming into the party. His wife got the seat on merit, he claimed.
Later in the afternoon, about 30 supporters of Chengai Chellappa (councillor of ward 31 and aspirant for Tiru-Vi-Ka Nagar Assembly constituency) vandalised Sathyamurthi Bhavan, protesting against the denial of party ticket to their leader. According to TNCC headquarters managers, the group of men pelted stones at the windowpanes even as they raised slogans against Thangkabalu. “The group, after damaging the window panes, went to the first floor, broke glass windows, furniture and a printer besides ransacking the whole office,” said Dhandapani V, office secretary. Though police personnel were present at the gates they did not intervene. “We will act only if we get a formal complaint. These are intra-party wrangles. We do not want to intervene,” a police official told Express. Asked if a formal complaint would be lodged, party managers said “there was no such practice,’as such things were common during all elections”.
Earlier, supporters of former MLA and State Seva Dal chief K Selvaraj staged a demonstration.
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