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Tamil Nadu Congress members staged demonstrations in district towns across the state on Monday, protesting against Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's remarks against party president Sonia Gandhi.
Apart from state Congress president E V K S Elangovan and All-India Congress Committee secretary G K Vasan, former Union ministers Vazhappadi K Ramamurthy and K V Thangabalu, both former presidents of the state unit and supporters of Jayalalithaa, also participated in the demonstrations.
Elangovan issued a statement chiding Jayalalithaa for the state's failure at the Cauvery River Authority meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in New Delhi on Sunday. "Her political strategy failed after she tried to woo the Bharatiya Janata Party and the prime minister through anti-Sonia diatribes," he said.
Elangovan pointed out that Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna had taken into confidence all political parties in Karnataka in a meeting, before attending the CRA meet in Delhi, while Jayalalithaa had ignored the request of leaders in her state for a similar meeting.
"Had this been done, and if Jayalalithaa had sent out the message that the whole of Tamil Nadu stood behind her," Elangovan remarked, "it would have been difficult for the prime minister to slight Tamil Nadu's reasonable demands."
In Salem, Pattali Makkal Katchi founder S Ramadoss expressed similar views. "The Jayalalithaa-led All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has given the impression that there are no opposition parties in Tamil Nadu," he said. "This led to the state's demands being ignored at the CRA meeting."
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