The move by GK Vasan, the Congress leader, to revive Tamil Manila Congress (TMC) by breaking away from the parent party, will come a cropper, feels a trusted aide of GK Moopanar who founded the TMC in 1996. “Moopanar, Vasan’s father, launched TMC in 1996 to protest against the decision of the then Congress president PV Narasimha Rao to forge an electoral alliance with the AIADMK for the 1996 Assembly election in Tamil Nadu. Though there was a strong anti-incumbency feeling against the then AIADMK Government led-by Jayalalithaa, the Congress went ahead and fought the election in company of the AIADMK only to get trounced,” said N Kalyanasundaram, veteran journalist and former aide to Kamaraj and Moopanar.
He pointed out that nearly two-third of the leaders of the TNCC joined TMC launched by Moopanar. “They took over Satyamoorthi Bhavan, the TNCC headquarters and the Congress was left without any office of its own. For the next six years TNCC functioned from rented offices,” reminiscences Kalyanasundaram.
Things have changed a lot since then. Moopanar, who quit the Congress in protest against its alliance with the AIADMK, formed an alliance with the same AIADMK in the 2001 Assembly election. Following Moopanar’s passing away in 2001, Vasan merged the party with the Congress
in 2002.
“There is a lot of difference between Moopanar and Vasan. While the former had a mass base and influence all over Tamil Nadu, Vasan is inaccessible as well as inexperienced. Moopanar had lots of friends cutting across political parties. Though he had quit the Congress, he never burnt the bridges with Sonia Gandhi. In 1996, many industrialists and businessmen from Mumbai and Chennai came forward to help Moopanar. Vasan does not command any such goodwill even in Tamil Nadu,” said Kalyanasundaram.
The reason for Vasan’s displeasure arises out of the importance given by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to P Chidambaram. The former Finance Minister has made his intentions clear the other day by launching a literary organisation based in Chennai to encourage young writers in Tamil. “Even the DMK may refuse to form an alliance with Vasan who has criticised Sonia Gandhi for the directive to TNCC to remove the pictures of Kamaraj and Moopanar from the membership cards issued by the TNCC,” said another political commentator in Chennai.
Congress MlA Vijayadharini pointed out that Vasan had criticised P Chidambaram only last week for the latter’s comment that the day was not far when a non-Gandhi would become the president of the Indian National Congress. “Vasan said that no Congress worker or leader from Kashmir to Kanyakumari wants a person from non-Gandhi clan to be the Congress president. How can he make a volte-face within two daysIJ” she asked.
She also pointed out that Vasan has not fought a single Assembly or lok Sabha election. “He always preferred the Rajya Sabha route. let him fight an election like any other leaders and prove his acceptability,” she said.
Jayanthi Natarajan, former glamour girl of the Congress and a close associate of Moopanar made her intentions clear on Sunday by declaring support to EVKS Elangovan, the newly appointed TNCC chief . “Except persons like Gnanadesikan, former TNCC chief and SR Balasubramanian, no other leaders would go with Vasan,” said Kalyanasundaram.