For the Congress, the new avatar of the Tamil Maanila Congress is symptomatic of the growing unhappiness in the party. Five-and-a-half months after the Lok Sabha election results, there has been very little action on the ground to reverse the situation.
There have been splits over the years in the Congress, with the most significant one in 1969, when Indira Gandhi broke it, severing her connection with members of the ‘Syndicate.’
But since the early 1990s, in the wake of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991, there have been several splits in State units. The new parties have had a mixed record, some flourishing, some maintaining a small presence in the legislatures both at State and Central, some forming electoral alliances with the Congress later and a few even re-merging with the Congress.
The first off the block in the 1990s was the All India Indira Congress (Tiwari), created by senior leaders Narain Dutt Tiwari, Arjun Singh and K. Natwar Singh in 1994. It was a challenge to P.V. Narasimha Rao, who was Congress president at the time, and the Prime Minister between 1991 and 1996.
Many in the Congress believe that Mr. Tiwari would have become Prime Minister in 1991 had he not lost his Lok Sabha seat that year. The party merged with the Congress once Sonia Gandhi became party president in 1998.
In 1996, the Tamil Maanila Congress was launched in Tamil Nadu by G.K. Moopanar to protest against the party’s decision to ally itself with the AIADMK. After Moopanar died in 2001, his son G.K. Vasan became party president. However, in 2002, the party merged with the Congress.
In 1998, the Congress’ West Bengal unit split and the Trinamool Congress was formed with Mamata Banerjee at its helm.
The next significant departure took place in 1999, when Sharad Pawar, P.A. Sangma, and Tariq Anwar, after being expelled from the Congress for disputing the right of Italian-born Sonia Gandhi to lead the party, formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The NCP draws its significance from Mr. Pawar’s clout in Maharashtra. A member of the United Progressive Alliance I and II, the NCP shared power with the Congress for 15 years in Maharashtra. The NCP parted ways on the eve of the recent Assembly elections in the western State.
In the decade that the Congress was in power at the Centre, there were two splits — one in Haryana and the other in Andhra Pradesh.
The Haryana Janhit Congress was created by former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal in 2007 after he failed to become the CM again in 2005.
Finally, in 2011, in the wake of the death of the Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, his son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy split the State unit to form the YSR Congress.
Each successive split in the Congress has only weakened the party — and the Vasan revolt on Monday should send alarm bells ringing in the party’s headquarters in Delhi.
