The political feud in the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee gets fueled as more MLAs team up against a senior party leader, which has sparked a new low and divide in the party that has been suffering to make a redemption in the state. Days after a storm caused by the suspension of senior leader Ruby Manoharan that was later stayed, a league of legislators has now come together against another senior leader Selvaperunthagai. 

Selvaperunthagai is the Congress Legislature Party leader in Tamil Nadu and has been representing the Sriperumbudur constituency in the current assembly. According to reports, a group of nine Congress MLAs has met Congress party's National President Mallikarjun Kharge and General Secretary KC Venugopal late last week and alleged that Selvaperunthagai has been taking decisions of the party unilaterally and he was not being accommodative towards the party MLAs. 

There has been a friction between Ruby Manoharan and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee Chief KS Alagiri due to which Manoharan was suspended from the party. Our sources say that as Manoharan strongly supports Selvaperunthagai, a group of nine MLAs backing KS Alagiri, has now reached out to the national leadership against Selvaperunthagai. While the Congress party has 18 MLAs in Tamil Nadu, ten MLAs have apparently displayed where they stand and the rest of them remain undecided. 

It has also been reported that the Alagiri faction had decided to lock horns with Selvaperunthagai after the latter joined hands with former Tamil Nadu Congress chiefs Elangovan, KV Thangabalu, and M Krishnasamy and met Kharge to express their displeasure against KS Alagiri. There has been a lot of speculations that KS Alagiri will be unseated from the leadership post and he will be succeeded by a woman leader. 

While sources cite Rahul Gandhi's backing of KS Alagiri till the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the divided political house is looking a room to replace him with the support from the national leadership. As Selvaperunthagai has turned out against KS Alagiri, the latter had knocked the doors of Delhi through the MLAs supporting him to stop the play staged against him. These nine MLAs met Mallikarjun Kharge and KC Venugopal separately last Friday and Saturday respectively.

However, the MLAs remained on the same page and complained to the national party leaders that Selvaperunthagai was not cooperative and that he is taking decisions unilaterally. A senior leader in the know has said that the MLAs had alleged that Selvaperunthagai is not consulting the members of the party. The MLAs further accused Selvaperunthagai of observing a pro-DMK stand and not supporting the Congress MLAs when they speak about the issues in their constituencies. 

The political divide is brewing unprecedently in the Tamil Nadu Congress under the leadership of KS Alagiri, the latest team up of MLAs with the backing of Alagiri has further widened the friction and would majorly cause damage to the already beleaguered political base. The divide has come at a high time when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is rallying out across India to unite the party against the BJP. 

Speaking to a news agency, Selvaperunthagai said that the MLAs of Congress and the allied parties are commending him for his leadership in the assembly and that he doesn't know that the complaints against him are genuine. Recently, Congress Tamil Nadu In-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao has stayed the suspension of Ruby Manoharan from the party by citing that the procedure was performed improperly.