Tamil Nadu election: Discontent in Congress as party allots Sriperumbudur seat to 'former LTTE supporter'

CHENNAI: Just like its alliance partner DMK, Congress too has its share of discontent over the selection of candidates for the May 16 Tamil Nadu assembly election.
While it has not manifested as open rebellion and minor violence as in DMK, senior leader and former MLA D Yasoda staged a protest with her supporters outside the state party headquarters here on Monday demanding that the Sriperumbudur seat be allotted to her.
"The ticket has been given to a former VCK leader and LTTE supporter Selva Perunthagai which is an injustice because Sriperumbudur has the Rajiv Gandhi memorial where he was assassinated by the Tamil extremists," she said.
Yasoda said Selvaperunthagai could be given the ticket to contest from any other constituency other than Sriperumbudur. "It is as sacred to us as any temple," she said.
Yasoda said people who had quit Congress and returned recently had been selected while seniors like her had been neglected.
Expressing solidarity with Yasoda, Congress minority leader S M Hidayatullah said while he had not joined the protest, he had served an ultimatum to the party high command to allot him a ticket by April 29, the last day for filing of nominations, as otherwise he would first "become inactive in the party and later quit the organisation."
"I have been a Congress member for more than 45 years working my way up from a NSUI (National Students' Union of India) leader in 1971 to an All India Congress Committee member. This is the tenth time I have been denied a ticket after I contested once from Chepauk constituency in the city in 1989 and lost narrowly to the DMK rival," he told TOI. The seat has over the years been contested by the DMK in alliance with the Congress.
"This time I have demanded a ticket from any of constituencies like Nallinam, Papanasam, Trichy East and Coimbatore South, which have 20% Muslim voters," he said.