11 May 2002

TMC MERGER INTO CONG ROUND THE CORNER

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: Congress President Sonia Gandhi has approved merger of the Tamil Mannila Congress (TMC) into the party and is rushing AICC Secretary Ramesh Chennithala, who is incharge of the Tamil Nadu desk in the party, to Chennai Saturday night to complete the formalities.

Chennithala said the party president wants the merger to take place prior to the three Assembly by-elections taking place in Tamil Nadu this month and and hence she asked him to first complete this task and then resume the responsibility of getting the Congress unseat the BJP government in the Assembly elections.

TMC, a breakaway group of the Congress, was floated by stalwart G K Moopanar who is no more and his son G K Vassan who took the party's reigns after Moopanar's death was elected to the Rajya Sabha last month, paving the way for the merger.

Congress has just seven MLAs while TMC has 23 and as such the TMC merger into the Congress will give the Congress the position of the main Opposition. At present, PMK holds the opposition leadership in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

The Tamil Nadu politics watchers, however, say the merger talks surface almost every year before the birth anniversary of Kamraj on July 15 but these finally fizzle out as a section of the TMC leadership does not want to lose their autonomy that they achieved when Moopanar broke away from the Congress. As such, they say the TMC may spring some roadblock to frustrate the latest attempt of merger as well. END