CHENNAI: Former Karnataka cadre IAS officer and Dalit face of the Congress Sasikanth Senthil is likely to head the Tamil Nadu unit of the party, sources said on Saturday. The term of the incumbent president, K.S. Alagiri has already come to an end but the camp owing allegiance to him is pressuring the national leadership to allow him continue in the post till the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Tamil Nadu Congress committee (TNCC) is now divided into three camps with the one led by the incumbent president Alagiri and the second helmed by the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Selvaperuthungai and the third that supports the candidature of Sasikanth Senthil. While Senthil is not aligned to any group, a few of the senior Congress leaders of the state have briefed the AICC that replacing Alagiri with a more dynamic and vibrant Sasikanth Senthil would do a lot of good for the Congress party in the state of.
It may be recalled that Senthil was one of the key election strategists for the Congress in the recent Karnataka assembly elections where the party wrested power from BJP. He is also now in charge of electioneering in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and many state leaders are preferring such a dynamic and young leader to head the party in the state.
Sources in the Congress told IANS that a group of Congress leaders led by K.S. Alaigiri had met AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge at Bengaluru on Friday and conveyed their desire to allow Alagiri to continue till the conclusion of the Lok Sabha elections 2024. The Congress is in a political alliance in Tamil Nadu with the ruling DMK and the alliance is expected to win all the 39 Lok Sabha seats from the state. However, the party leadership does not want to take any chances and hence discussions are rife for the replacement of Alagiri with a more vibrant and dynamic young leader Senthil, a Dalit himself.
