Discontent within the Tamil Maanila Congress continued to take a toll on the party with former Mayor of Tiruchi, Sarubala R. Tondaiman, quitting the party.
Although Ms.Tondaiman, the party’s urban district president, had sent in her resignation a couple of weeks back apparently after being disillusioned with the way the party was being run, especially with respect to Mr.Vasan’s decision to go along with the Third Front in the Assembly election earlier this year, the official word came only on Thursday. Accepting her resignation, party leader G. K. Vasan appointed Nanda K. Senthilvel, the party’s south district president, as the urban district president. D. Guna has been appointed the south district president.
Ms. Tondaiman’s decision follows senior party leaders such as S. R. Balasubramanian, Peter Alphonse and C. Gnanasekaran, who had earlier quit from the TMC to join the Dravidian parties.
A long time loyalist of late G. K. Moopanar, who had introduced her to active politics in 1998, Ms. Tondaiman threw her lot with Mr. Vasan when he revived the TMC in November 2014 and was made the Tiruchi urban district president. However, she was unhappy after Mr.Vasan “failed to heed the advice of party men on the need to have a strong alliance to face the Assembly election.”
“Many of us had opposed Mr.Vasan’s decision to go along with the People’s Welfare Front. We wanted him to form an alliance with the DMK if not with the AIADMK. There is no future in the party now,” Ms. Tondaiman told The Hindu on her reasons for quitting the TMC. However, she had campaigned for the People’s Welfare Front candidates during the Assembly election.
Married into the royal family of the erstwhile Pudukkottai Princely State, she had served as Mayor for two terms between 2001 and 2009, when she resigned to unsuccessfully contest the Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket from Tiruchi. She contested again in 2014, also on the Congress ticket, but lost again. Nevertheless, Ms. Tondaiman remained one of the popular faces of the TMC in the city as she had gained a reputation for her confident and able administration of the civic body.
Over the past couple of weeks there was widespread speculation on her resignation from the party and reported move to join the AIADMK. However, Ms. Tondaiman had remained non-committal on her resignation but denied that she was trying to join any other party.
Ms. Tondaiman refused to give any indication on her future course of action. “I am in no hurry and have not made any decision as yet,” she said.
A long time loyalist of late G. K. Moopanar, Sarubala R. Tondaiman entered active politics in 1998
