Sathyamurthy Bhavan, the headquarters of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC), witnessed tense moments when a section of leaders took exception to the placing of late MP H. Vasanthakumar’s portrait alongside that of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, whose birth anniversary was celebrated on Thursday. The portrait of Vasanthakumar, whose birth anniversary also falls on April 14, was removed for a brief moment but restored to the earlier place at the intervention of Congress MLA Rubi Manoharan.

The objection to keeping Vasanthakumar’s portrait had come from Selvaperunthagai, the leader of the Congress Legislative Party.

“When reporters asked me about the party’s plan to club the birthdays of Ambedkar and Vasanthakumar, I told them it was unlikely to happen. Ambedkar is a national leader while Vasanthakumar was a member of the Congress family. When I went to the party office, I saw both the portraits. I told the leaders it was not a [good] practice,” Mr Selvaperunthagai told Rashtra News.

His argument was that placing the two portraits together would amount to denigrating both the leaders.

“We, however, agreed to keep the portraits together since it had already been placed. But it is wrong. The arrangement honours neither Ambedkar nor Vasanthakumar. The TNCC does not follow the practice of celebrating the birth anniversary of former MPs, leave along the late PCC presidents. After hearing about the news, the AICC is upset and particular about taking disciplinary action against those who have done it,” claimed Mr Selvaperunthagai.

Even though he denied the allegations that Vasanthakumar’s portrait was removed, Mr Rubi Manoharan insisted it indeed disappeared from the scene for sometime.

“It was there when I went to the party office. After sometime it disappeared. The party workers might have removed it to avoid any confrontation. I told everyone it would send a wrong message and would be construed as a clash between two communities. It will not augur well for the party Subsequently it was placed near Ambedkar’s portrait,” Mr Manoharan explained.

Mr Selvaperunthagai, convinced by Mr Manoharan’s argument participated in the event and paid floral tributes to both the portraits.

The issue was also brought to the notice of Sirivella Prasad, AICC secretary in-charge of Tamil Nadu, and he had advised the TNCC leadership not to keep the portraits together in the future.