Later in the evening, Rangasamy, Angalane and former AICC member V Bhalan submitted to Puducherry Pradesh Congress committee president AV Subramanian their letters of resignations from party posts and primary memberships as well. "The three handed over their resignation letters at the Congress office," Subramanian said.
With a sizeable support base, Rangasamy will float a new political party and his supporters are confident that several prominent persons including elected representatives from various political parties will join the new party. The development will be a set back for the Congress in the territory where assembly election is scheduled to be held along with that of Tamil Nadu sometime in April or May.
Rangasamy, who was unceremoniously removed from the chief minister's post by the high command after his own cabinet colleagues revolted against him in 2008, arrived at the legislative assembly along with his supporters around 11am. But as the legislative assembly speaker R Radhakrishnan was not in his chamber, he handed over his resignation letter to the assembly secretary M Sivaprakasam.
He expressed his displeasure over the failure of the Congress government led by chief minister V Vaithilingam in executing development and welfare schemes in his constituency, Thattanchavady. Rangasamy's new party will fight the Congress in the company of like-minded political parties in the ensuing assembly polls. However, he refused to divulge complete information about his plans to float a new party and maintained that he will make an announcement soon.
Within a few minutes after he tendered his resignation, Angalane, who was elected from Thirubhuvanai reserved constituency on a Congress ticket, also tendered his resignation. A former welfare minister, Angalane said he resigned from the legislature to extend solidarity to Rangasamy and said he will join the new party. "The Congress government failed to carry on development and welfare schemes launched by Rangasamy during his tenure," Angalane said.
Puducherry has been making great strides as one of the major tourist destinations in the country and Congress, which has a substantial base here, has of late struggled to retain its stronghold. With Rangasamy's exit, there have been two major revolts in the party in the last decade. Former revenue minister and present Rajya Sabha MP P Kannan quit the party thrice and floated two regional parties before merging them with the parent party.
No comments:
Post a Comment