PC's son lands in Youth Cong faction feud

Tamil Nadu Youth Congress (TNYC) president M Yuvaraj on Monday accused Karti P Chidambaram, AICC member and Union home minister P Chidambaram's son, of creating divisions in the party. Yuvaraj called a press meet at the TNCC headquarters here to allege that Karti had distributed Youth Congress membership cards at an event in Nagapattinam recently.

"He wasn't authorised to distribute membership cards. In fact, we have a policy against participation of AICC leaders in Youth Congress events. We consider this an interference by Karti Chidambaram in YC affairs," Yuvaraj, considered a loyalist of Union shipping minister GK Vasan, told reporters.

"When senior leaders like P Chidambaram and TNCC president KV Thangkabalu don't interfere in our affairs, why does he (Karti)?" Yuvaraj asked. He added that the TNYC had sent a complaint to the party high command; based on this, Indian Youth Congress (IYC) general secretary Kiran Kumar Reddy, who is in charge of Tamil Nadu, had sent show-cause notices to Prabhu, a Youth Congress functionary in Nagapattinam, and Varadarajan, TNYC vice-president, for inviting Karti Chidambaram to the event.

Stressing that no TNYC event should be held without the consent of its state and district leaders, Yuvaraj added, "Karti is definitely trying to create factionalism."

Karti Chidambaram, when contacted, declined to comment on the issue. However, Reddy was upset over Yuvaraj going public with the developments. "This is an internal matter!" he said, when contacted. "I had not given Yuvaraj permission to call this press conference and it is unauthorised. Also, there are no complaints against Karti."

Reddy brushed aside the matter of the show cause notices and said, "I have sent show cause notices to several IYC leaders. We have an internal policy against inviting AICC leaders for IYC events. This is merely to have better crowd control. Anybody who violates that guideline gets a show cause notice. This may or may not lead to any action."