Expelled members can appeal to AICC panel: Thangkabalu

The wargames continued in the Tamil Nadu Congress with some expelled members rejecting TNCC chief K V Thangkabalu's advice on Monday that they could appeal to the AICC disciplinary panel against their expulsion. "Thangkabalu keeps changing his statements. He first claimed he had full powers to expel us, but now he says that we can appeal to the party's disciplinary committee in Delhi," former Chennai deputy mayor 'Karate' R Thiagarajan said, adding, "Let him follow procedure and issue a show cause notice and then we will give our reply".


S Mangalraj, South Chennai district Congress chief, told TOI that there was no question of appealing to the disciplinary committee without first getting a show-cause notice from the AICC.

Earlier in the day, after he led a party protest condemning the death of four Tamil Nadu fishermen allegedly in attacks by the Sri Lankan navy in the past few days, Thangkabalu told reporters that he stood by his decision and the only course open to them was to submit an appeal before the AICC panel.

On Monday, Thangkabalu and his supporters were arrested when they started marching towards the Sri Lankan deputy high commission on the fishermen issue. A short distance away at Luz Corner, youth and mahila Congress workers were arrested after they burnt an effigy of Thangkabalu. They were later released.