The Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC), resurrected last year by former Congressman G.K. Vasan, is perhaps the only untested party with modest ambitions of sending a few MLAs to the next Assembly in Tamil Nadu. Not willing to make costly electoral mistakes, it appears to be in no haste to jump on to the bandwagon of either of the major Dravidian parties or the People’s Welfare Front. The party has not given any indication which way it is heading.
Though there is a strong feeling that Vasan may lean towards the ruling AIADMK, senior leaders of the party claim a decision would be taken only in January 2016 closer to the Assembly polls.
On Wednesday, the party completed the process of reviewing the performance of its 78 district units. It has decided to set up booth committees in all districts soon.
“We have many advantages over other political parties. We have a young leadership and enjoy goodwill among all political parties,” claims TMC senior vice-president B.S. Gnanadesikan.
There is a feeling among Mr Vasan’s supporters that his father G.K. Moopanar, who launched the TMC in 1996, had failed to utilise his popularity and take the party to a higher level. “District secretaries have reiterated that the party should have a prominent role in any alliance,” said a leader.
Though Mr Vasan too has ambitiously declared that the alliance in which TMC was a partner alone would emerge victorious in the elections, given that the party’s actual vote share is untested not many are buying his claim.
But senior TMC leader Peter Alphonse insists, “We want to play a decisive and crucial role in the elections. We will not settle for a few seats. As a young leader Mr Vasan has to make measured steps before taking a final plunge.”
Prof C. Lakshmanan of the Madras Institute of Development Studies however, was sceptical.
“There was a justification for Moopanar to start the TMC and he had the backing of a popular actor like Rajinikant. But Vasan’s decision to revive the defunct organisation was shaped by the high-command’s decision to appoint someone other than his supporter as TNCC president. In politics you cannot allow personal agenda to take precedence over general consideration,” Mr Lakshmanan said.
| 1996 | G.K. Moopanar, a former TNCC president, launches Tamil Maanila Congress after the All India Congress Committee high-command decides to align with the AIADMK. TMC-DMK combine swept the 1996 Assembly and LS polls and the local body polls held subsequently. |
| 1998 | TMC-DMK alliance fails to make it big in the Parliamentary election as BJP-AIADMK alliance makes inroads. |
| 1999 | DMK joins the BJP alliance prompting TMC to play the secular card and join hands with two Dalit parties - Puthiya Tamizhagam and Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi - in the 1999 LS polls. The alliance comes a cropper. |
| 2001 | Moopanar decides to align with Jayalalithaa even though TMC owed its birth to anti-AIADMK sentiments. G.K. Moopanar dies. |
| 2002 | Moopanar’s son, G.K. Vasan (until then Govinda Vasan) takes over the leadership of the TMC and later merges it with the Congress. |
| 2014 | A sidelined Vasan relaunches the TMC but some leaders who in the Moopanar camp stay put in Congress. |
