Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K. Selvaperunthagai and All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge, Tamil Nadu, Girish Chadonkar, on Sunday held meetings with parliamentary and zonal conveners who were appointed to constitute 25,000 village committees of the party across the State.
The exercise is being spearheaded by Congress leader Peter Alphonse.
Mr. Chadonkar said the aim was to ensure that the party in Tamil Nadu was fully involved in the creation of the committees. Around 40% of the target has been achieved, he added.
“Today, we held a review meeting with all the zonal leaders. The exercise has been going on for the last two months. Along with the zonal in-charges, we also invited the parliamentary co-ordinators [for the meetings]. The task to set up 25,000 village committees is huge considering how we have been out of power for such a long time. I am happy to see that our senior leaders are also working [towards creating the committees] by going to villages and meeting the cadre at the grassroots to rebuild the party,” he said.
Mr. Selvaperunthagai said that such an exercise had not been carried out since the Congress lost power to the DMK in 1967.
“Since the time of [former Chief Minister] K. Kamaraj, we haven’t done anything like this. We have set up booth committees before, but we couldn’t verify their members. This time, the members of each village committee will be verified through phone calls by parliamentary conveners, zonal conveners at Assembly level, and a war room set up at the Sathyamurthy Bhavan…,” he added.
With the 2026 Assembly election being just 12 months away, sources in the party said it was essential to show that the organisation retained significant support.
Published – March 17, 2025 12:35 am IST
