New Delhi [India], June 11 : The All India Congress Committee (AICC) fact-finding grievance committee members, Hidayatullah and Sorna Sethuraman, held a meeting at Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC), headquarters in Sathyamurthy Bhavan in Chennai on Thursday and discussed constituency issues.
This comes after the AICC formed a 60-day fact-finding and grievance committee headed by former MP K Jayakumar to investigate anti-party activities, candidate selection irregularities, and poor grassroots election work during the recent Tamil Nadu assembly elections.
Addressing reporters, Sethuraman said, "The All India Congress Committee has constituted the committee. We have started our work, and we have sent the information to all the contested candidates as well as the DCC presidents and the office-bearers of these concerned constituencies. And they keep sending their complaints, and we have started already and finished almost around seven districts in Chennai," further adding that they have conducted a thorough interaction with the Krishnagiri and Ranipet constituencies and will be meeting a few other districts later on in the day.
He revealed that the committee has been given 60 days by the AICC high command and detailed their next steps.
"First of all, we have to meet all the concerned people, and we will take their reports, and we will all sit together under our chairman, Jayakumar. Our committee member will make a format, then it will be forwarded to the high command."
The composition of Committee consists of five members, with K Jayakumar serving as the Chairman. Hidayatullah, the Vice President of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC), acts as the Convenor. The remaining positions are held by three committee members: Swarna Sethuraman, who is also a Vice President of the TNCC, senior Congress Leader CD Meyappan, and Kamalakshi Kamaraj, the National Secretary of the All India Mahila Congress (AIMC).
Congress won five seats in the State Assembly Elections as part of the DMK-led alliance, but later extended support to TVK after it emerged as the single largest party but fell short of the majority mark of 118 in a 234-member Assembly.
Following the committee constitution, Congress MP, S Jothimani earlier alleged "large-scale corruption" in the Tamil Nadu Congress, alleging "massive irregularities" in candidate selection and constituency allocation within the Congress party.
Jothimani argued that the current state-level inquiry committee, formed to investigate "anti-party activities," is merely a facade designed to shield those involved in the alleged irregularities.
"Without conducting an inquiry into constituency allocation and candidate selection, forming a committee only to investigate alleged anti-party activities during the election is merely an arrangement to protect those who are actually responsible for the wrongdoing," she stated.