Pradesh Congress Committee president V. Vaithilingam on Tuesday said the Congress was ready to support Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam in the bypoll for Thattanchavady Assembly constituency in Puducherry.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Vaithilingam said he was not going to contest the bypoll. The byelection to Thattanchavady has become a necessity after Chief Minister N. Rangasamy who won both Thattanchavady and Mangalam constituencies decided to retain latter.

Asked if Congress would extend support to TVK for the bypoll as both the parties have come together in neighbouring Tamil Nadu for government formation, Mr. Vaithilingam said, “certainly we will extend support to the TVK candidate.” 

On the charges levelled against the PCC leadership by DMK Puducherry convenor R. Siva, the MP said the Dravidian party was to be blamed for the poor electoral performance as DMK assumed the leadership of the INDIA bloc in Puducherry.

“The DMK leaders only held talks with alliance partners such as the CPI, the CPI (M) and the VCK. We were not in the picture of seat sharing talks in the initial stages. So, we cannot be blamed for the poor performance. Also, the DMK completely failed to assess the importance of TVK in Tamil Nadu,” the PCC chief said.

On his resignation as PCC president after the Assembly election results were out, the MP said, “I voluntarily submitted the resignation letter, but the AICC did not accept my request.”