AICC in-charge for Puducherry Girish Chodankar’s endorsement of six party rebel candidates in the recent Assembly election, directly contradicted the stand of the Puducherry Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief V. Vaithilingam on the issue.

The six candidates had filed their nominations before allocation of constituencies among constituents of the Congress-DMK alliance. However, after the seat sharing exercise was completed the PPCC had asked these candidates to withdraw from the race. However, they refused. Mr Vaithilingam had then declared them as “rebels” and said action would be taken against them. He had even disapproved of AICC spokesperson Dolly Sharma’s contention that this was “friendly fight”.

However, on Saturday, Mr Chodankar, who was on a two-day visit to Puducherry told journalists action would not be initiated against the six candidates as they were given ticket by the Congress party. “They have not indulged in any anti- party activities as the Congress party only gave tickets to them. They are very much in the party,” he said.

Incidentally, post-polls, the Congress had unilaterally snapped ties with the DMK in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

A DMK leader told The Hindu the alliance did not go smooth mainly because of the candidature of six Congress members. The DMK was made to believe that after the members refused to withdraw, the Congress was considering them as rebels, he added.

“The statement of AICC in charge was just opposite to the stand taken by Congress leaders in Puducherry, especially Mr. Vaithilingam. Now, we don’t know whether they had really asked the members to withdraw as it was made out to the alliance partners and the media. If they have really asked them to withdraw, and if they have not obeyed the directions of the party leadership, their action should be construed as one of indiscipline only and accordingly disciplinary action should have been taken,” the DMK leader said.