Groupism mars Kamarajs birth anniversary

PUDUCHERRY: Groupism and a tone of discontent marred Kamaraj’s birth centenary celebrations on Friday, when a fight broke out between two factions at the Congress party office. Supporters of Rajya Sabha member P Kannan and Union Minister of State V Narayanasamy came to blows over the matter of selection of the leader of the opposition.Trouble broke out after the party president A V Subramanian delivered his address, followed by that of former MLA Neela Gangadharan. The latter while offering salutations to Kamaraj referred to former Chief Minister V Vaithilingam and former minister A Namassivayam as ‘former ministers in waiting for the post of leader of the opposition’, which was vehemently objected by PCC general secretary Vetriselvam and others. Their contention was that Congress had lost power in the UT because of the ministers and it would not be proper to give them the post of the leader of the opposition. This led to an altercation between the two groups. Union minister  Narayanasamy and  Vaithilingam intervened and tried to pacify them, but half an hour passed before calm could be restored. Later, leaders and members paid floral tributes to the leader.