Chennai: Touted as the “real Congress” in Tamil Nadu when it was revived in 2014 after a gap of 12 years, the Tamil Maanila Congress headed by G. K. Vasan stares at an existential crisis. After the DMK banged its doors on the face, the TMC has virtually been pushed into political oblivion with its chief Mr Vasan, son of veteran Congressman G. K. Moopanar, finding himself politically isolated.
Having lost all his trusted lieutenants to parent party Congress and the ruling AIADMK, which has emerged as the favourite hotspot for leaders of the TMC after its humiliating defeat in the May 16 Assembly elections, Mr Vasan has been forced to run the party with just a handful of leaders, who might also jump the ship if an opportunity knocks at their door, according to insiders.
Already finding it tough to run the party, the TMC suffered a body blow when the DMK refused to accommodate it as an alliance partner for the local body polls.
Mr Vasan's telephone call to senior leaders and district functionaries informing them that the party would contest alone came as a rude shock to them more than the news that DMK refused to align.
“What is the point of contesting the elections on our own? If we have to contest every election only to lose, why do we need a political party? A slew of wrong and disastrous decisions by our party leadership have created the mess that we find ourselves in. The grassroots cadre is always excited about local body elections. And now that excitement has been killed brutally,” a senior TMC leader, spoke on condition of anonymity.
Vasan's long-time aide and AIADMK Rajya Sabha MP S. R. Balasubramanian was quite hard in his criticism against his former leader. “I can only sympathize with Vasan. He failed at every crucial time and took wrong decisions. And that's why he finds himself isolated today. He comes across as a leader who can't be trusted,” he told Deccan Chronicle.
He also accused Vasan of sidestepping the party leadership by aligning with the PWA-DMDK, when talks with the AIADMK were still on. “I was talking to the AIADMK but he unilaterally decided to align with the PWA. Is this an example of leadership?” he asked.
The party, TMC, was revived with much fanfare in November, 2014 but it lost steam sooner than expected though the party made tall claims of enrolling nearly 40 lakh people into its fold. And truth hit the home in May 2016 when the party scored just around 3 lakh votes in the 26 constituencies it contested.
The humiliating defeat at the hustings set the ball rolling for desertions by senior leaders and now the decision to go it alone in local body polls would only “activate” the fence-sitters to jump the wall, political observers feel.
Though none of them has approached the parent Congress till the time of writing, speculation is abuzz that the remaining second-rung leadership will disintegrate sooner than later. Already, there has been intense speculation within the party that senior leaders would also quit the TMC.
Leaders in the TNCC said they welcome anyone who accepts the leadership of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi into the Congress. A senior TNCC leader, who has been a vociferous critic of Mr Vasan, said there was “leadership bankruptcy” in the TMC and that the party would soon disintegrate. “Many leaders came back to us when he aligned with the DMDK-PWA and now the entire flock would come to the parent party. There is no doubt about this fact and moreover he does not have many people around him,” he said, on condition of anonymity.
