It’s deja vu all over again for the Congress. In Tamil Nadu, the repetition of history has almost been too perfect: 18 years ago, GK Moopanar took a faction loyal to him and quit the Congress party to set up a new outfit called the Tamil Maanila Congress. On Monday, Moopanar’s son, GK Vasan, who oversaw the Maanila Congress’ merger with its parent party in 2001, announced that he would be repeating his father’s actions and splitting the Congress yet again.
"We have taken this decision after getting the feedback of lakhs of Congress cadres in Tamil Nadu and also leaders of Congress party in Tamil Nadu,” Vasan said on Monday. “We have sent in our resignations. We are on a new path. Youth in Tamil Nadu are looking for a new political culture. We are confident of fulfilling it.”
The Congress, acting in the only way India’s Grand Old Party can, decided a few hours later to expel the man who had just announced he was leaving to go form his own party. Mukul Wasnik, the Congress general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu insisted that Vasan was leaving for personal gain.
“This is a reflection on the individual concerned," Wasnik said about Vasan. "When the Congress was in power, you were with it but no longer… till the end efforts were taken so that he does not leave the party, but it did not work out.”
But the development should seriously concern the Congress high command, still reeling from the debacle in this year’s Lok Sabha elections and the loss of two more states to the Bharatiya Janata Party in assembly elections. Although there haven’t been any very senior defections from the party until now, there is still uncertainty over whether the lessons of the Lok Sabha loss have been properly understood.
Could the Congress look back to its actions in 2002, when Vasan and Sonia Gandhi oversaw the return of the Maanila Congress to its parent party? Two years after that, the Congress went on to surprise all by returning to power at the Centre. But now, it will take a lot more for the party to now reach a stage, especially in Tamil Nadu, where Vasan would want to return.
Here’s why this time it is not like the last.
Pie slices: Fractious politics was de rigueur in 1996, when Moopanar decided to exit the Congress to set up the Tamil Maanila Congress. The centre was being led by a series of shaky coalitions, and the split itself was the result of Congress’ decision to ally with the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which Moopanar strongly opposed. Voters then were used to expecting coalitions.
The trend of the last year, however, suggests that the polity has grown tired of shaky alliances and wants to see strong majorities and stable governments instead. Vasan is expected to see his party become close allies with either one of the major Dravidian parties, but that leaves a much smaller slice of the pie for what’s left of the Congress, which garnered a meagre 4.3% of the vote share during the Lok Sabha elections.
State problems: The statement by Mukul Wasnik said it all: “I want to categorically state that there is no split of the Congress party. Yes, a few of them have left, but a majority of the members are with us. All the former Pradesh Congress presidents, district presidents, former MPs and many senior leaders are with us.”
“Former” Members of Parliament is key there, because the party has none from Tamil Nadu. Now, three of the five Members of Legislative Assembly in the state have also come out in support of Vasan.
National leadership: Has the Congress understood what happened in May? Anti-incumbency alone cannot answer it, yet the party seems to have made very few changes that might provide lasting change to improve its operations. Vasan’s acknowledged reasons for leaving the Congress were precisely these: the leadership took too long to make decisions, he said, and it wasn’t merit-based.
“I'm personally not happy to leave the national party, but I'm forced to because of the system,” he said. “If there is a system failure and if it doesn't work according to merit, then it will be difficult for the party to achieve their goal. This was the main problem in Tamil Nadu.”
Local names: When the Maanila Congress broke away in 1996, it had names like P. Chidambaram, Dhanushkodi Adityan and even film-actor Rajinikanth to back it. Today, Vasan only has the support of SR Balasubramanian, a stalwart of the Moopanar era. But this isn’t because of Vasan’s inability to attract people from within the Congress.
Instead, it might have as much to do with the fact that the state leadership simply doesn’t have the names and clout to make much of an impact on the complex politics of Tamil Nadu. EVKS Elangovan, who has some clout and popularity, has taken the reins of the party in the state, but he’s got a huge set of challenges ahead of him if he wants to put the house in order.
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"We have taken this decision after getting the feedback of lakhs of Congress cadres in Tamil Nadu and also leaders of Congress party in Tamil Nadu,” Vasan said on Monday. “We have sent in our resignations. We are on a new path. Youth in Tamil Nadu are looking for a new political culture. We are confident of fulfilling it.”
The Congress, acting in the only way India’s Grand Old Party can, decided a few hours later to expel the man who had just announced he was leaving to go form his own party. Mukul Wasnik, the Congress general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu insisted that Vasan was leaving for personal gain.
“This is a reflection on the individual concerned," Wasnik said about Vasan. "When the Congress was in power, you were with it but no longer… till the end efforts were taken so that he does not leave the party, but it did not work out.”
But the development should seriously concern the Congress high command, still reeling from the debacle in this year’s Lok Sabha elections and the loss of two more states to the Bharatiya Janata Party in assembly elections. Although there haven’t been any very senior defections from the party until now, there is still uncertainty over whether the lessons of the Lok Sabha loss have been properly understood.
Could the Congress look back to its actions in 2002, when Vasan and Sonia Gandhi oversaw the return of the Maanila Congress to its parent party? Two years after that, the Congress went on to surprise all by returning to power at the Centre. But now, it will take a lot more for the party to now reach a stage, especially in Tamil Nadu, where Vasan would want to return.
Here’s why this time it is not like the last.
Pie slices: Fractious politics was de rigueur in 1996, when Moopanar decided to exit the Congress to set up the Tamil Maanila Congress. The centre was being led by a series of shaky coalitions, and the split itself was the result of Congress’ decision to ally with the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which Moopanar strongly opposed. Voters then were used to expecting coalitions.
The trend of the last year, however, suggests that the polity has grown tired of shaky alliances and wants to see strong majorities and stable governments instead. Vasan is expected to see his party become close allies with either one of the major Dravidian parties, but that leaves a much smaller slice of the pie for what’s left of the Congress, which garnered a meagre 4.3% of the vote share during the Lok Sabha elections.
State problems: The statement by Mukul Wasnik said it all: “I want to categorically state that there is no split of the Congress party. Yes, a few of them have left, but a majority of the members are with us. All the former Pradesh Congress presidents, district presidents, former MPs and many senior leaders are with us.”
“Former” Members of Parliament is key there, because the party has none from Tamil Nadu. Now, three of the five Members of Legislative Assembly in the state have also come out in support of Vasan.
National leadership: Has the Congress understood what happened in May? Anti-incumbency alone cannot answer it, yet the party seems to have made very few changes that might provide lasting change to improve its operations. Vasan’s acknowledged reasons for leaving the Congress were precisely these: the leadership took too long to make decisions, he said, and it wasn’t merit-based.
“I'm personally not happy to leave the national party, but I'm forced to because of the system,” he said. “If there is a system failure and if it doesn't work according to merit, then it will be difficult for the party to achieve their goal. This was the main problem in Tamil Nadu.”
Local names: When the Maanila Congress broke away in 1996, it had names like P. Chidambaram, Dhanushkodi Adityan and even film-actor Rajinikanth to back it. Today, Vasan only has the support of SR Balasubramanian, a stalwart of the Moopanar era. But this isn’t because of Vasan’s inability to attract people from within the Congress.
Instead, it might have as much to do with the fact that the state leadership simply doesn’t have the names and clout to make much of an impact on the complex politics of Tamil Nadu. EVKS Elangovan, who has some clout and popularity, has taken the reins of the party in the state, but he’s got a huge set of challenges ahead of him if he wants to put the house in order.
