Congress leader H Vasanthakumar hopes to get ticket in Kanyakumari

MADURAI: Senior Congress leader H Vasanthakumar is hopeful of getting the Kanyakumari ticket once again as the southernmost constituency is one of the 10 constituencies that have been set aside for the Congress in the DMK alliance. He was interacting with journalists at Nagercoil on Sunday.

Recalling the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in which he contested from the same constituency (and came second, losing to Pon Radhakrishnan), he said that contesting again now would not be problem because he is a sitting MLA.

The Nanguneri MLA (in Tirunelveli district) said the final call on his candidature will be taken by the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

Taking a dig at BJP, he called it a party lacking political stability. Vasanthakumar recalled Kanyakumari MP and minister of state for shipping and finance Pon Radhakrishnan and BJP state president Tamilisai Soundararajan for continuously attacking the DMK and AIADMK. He questioned on what grounds BJP formed an alliance with AIADMK?

Stating that PMK’s alliance with the AIADMK is unimaginable due to the strong criticism PMK made against AIADMK even recently, Vasanthakumar said that the PMK is now trying to fool the people by telling them that they have made 10 demands before they forged the alliance.

Recalling that MDMK general secretary Vaiko has badly criticized by the Congress, he said that the Congress is part of the alliance led by DMK in the state, which has allotted 10 seats for Congress. At this juncture, he said, that Vaiko too has an alliance with the DMK and not with the Congress.

He said that DMK president M K Stalin was the first to propose Rahul Gandhi as the prime minister candidate for the Lok Sabha polls, he added that for this reason the Congress is obliged to do what Stalin says. If Vaiko is a candidate and if we are asked to campaign for him, we will do it, he added.