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Vasan floats new party; expelled from Cong
Vasan was simply emulating his more illustrious and popular father G K Moopanar who had similarly walked out of the party and floated his own Tamil Maanila Congress.
New Delhi: In a classic case of bolting the stable after the horses have fled, the Congress leadership has expelled former union minister G K Vasan hours after he announced his decision to walk out of the party and revive his old party Tamil Maanila Congress formed by his father G K Moopanar.
Vasan was simply emulating his more illustrious and popular father G K Moopanar who had similarly walked out of the party and floated his own Tamil Maanila Congress. After he died, Vasan had merged the party with the Congress. Now with both the main Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu on a weak wicket, Vasan perhaps senses that his bargaining powers would be better with a state level outfit.
The Congress, however, maintained the fiction of ‘expulsion’ as against the split.” Till now we have not received any resignation from the party by Vasan. But we have acted on the basis of information from our Tamil Nadu unit that he is planning to float a regional outfit,” said party general secretary Mukul Wasnik who is the in-charge for Tamil Nadu affairs.
There were ample signs for the party to take note of as Vasan’s loyalist, pcc chief Gnanadesikan, had resigned a few days and blamed the central leadership for the neglect of the state unit. However, instead of taking pre-emptive action, the party appointed a new pcc chief, T K S Elangovan.
Wasnik dismissed the allegations of neglect by the central leadership. “We do not know their motives in doing this, but the charges that he is levelling are totally baseless. All decisions were taken by the AICC in consultation with Tamil Nadu pcc president, and till last week he was here to discuss the organisational elections,” he added.
Describing Vasan as a ‘ deserter”, Wasnik maintained that his act of walking away from the party when it was not in power at the Centre spoke for itself.” He enjoyed all the privileges of a minister when the party was in power, and now that we are in opposition he has preferred to form a new party. This cannot be seen as a reflection on our leadership, but it speaks volumes for him,” he added.
