Chennai: The Congress party in Tamil Nadu suffered its second vertical split in two decades with former Union shipping minister G.K.Vasan on Monday floating a new party.
The party name and flag will be made public at the general council meeting of the new party to be held in Tiruchy likely on November 16, Vasan told reporters.
He announced the party launch, flanked by other party seniors B.S.Gnanadesikan,S.R.Balasubramonian, Peter Alphonse and C. Gnanasekaran and thousands of supporters who had put up a huge hoarding at the function venue bearing images of the same Kamarajar and Moopanar the AICC had reportedly wanted removed from the membership cards.
Hours later, the AICC announced Vasan’s expulsion for airing anti-party views. Asked repeatedly to state one reason that had triggered the split, an evasive Vasan, whose father and veteran Congress leader G.K.Moopanar had first split TNCC by floating Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) in 1996 and which he merged with the Congress in 2002, said they were not satisfied with the way the AICC was functioning in achieving the goal of establishing Kamaraj rule in the state.
Asked if he saw a leadership crisis in the Indian National Congress, Vasan said, “Our concern is that the party was not in power for 47 years in the state.
Our idea is to strengthen the new party and prove that there is a strong support base for the party in the state.”
On parting ways with the Congress after enjoying power, the former shipping minister said, “I had all along reflected people’s problems while I was in the cabinet, but it did not bear fruition. Now I will try to do what I could not do while I was in office.”
Responding to a specific query about seeking actor Rajinikanth’s support for his party, he said that people from all sections should come forward to support his new party. However, the Moopanar progeny was not averse to conceding that, “I did not boast that I would have won if I had contested in the Lok Sabha this year, but I had toured all 39 constituencies, not just a few in which my supporters alone were contesting.”
