Congress expels former legislator

Chennai, Mar 24 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) today suspended former legislator Dr A Chellakumar from the party for instigating his supporters to burn an effigy of AICC general secretary Veerappa Moily.

Following a direction from Mr Veerappa Moily, who is in-charge of the party's affairs in Tamil Nadu, TNCC President M Krishnasamy suspended Dr Chellakumar with immediate effect.

The TNCC President accused the rebel leader of having instigated a few persons to burn the effigy of Mr Moily, alleging that the assembly seats identified for the Congress were not satisfactory.

Mr Krishnasamy said he would be sending a report to party president Sonia Gandhi for further action in this regard.

The supporters of Dr Chellakumar, who had represented the state assembly during 1991-96, burnt the effigy of Mr Moily yesterday, protesting against his failure to get winnable seats for the Congress.

They alleged that Mr Moily had surrendered the interest of the party to the DMK by accepting all the conditions laid down by the DMK president M Karunanidhi.

Meanwhile, a group of supporters of Dr Chellakumar, burnt an effigy of Mr Moily for the second day today in front of the T Nagar bus stand.

Dr Chellakumar's supporters had created a flutter in front of the TNCC headquarters on the very first day when Mr Krishnasamy assumed office as TNCC President here last month.

Minutes after Mr Krishnasamy asserted that there was no groupism in the party, supporters of the former MLA, armed with sticks, descended on the party office and staged a protest against the move to appoint Mr Karthik Chidambaram, son of Union Minsiter P Chidambaram, as Youth Congress President.

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