THE STATES

A merger mela

The Congress(I) and the Tamil Maanila Congress merge, and the composite Congress' agenda has been identified as reviving "Kamaraj rule" in Tamil Nadu.

T.S. SUBRAMANIAN
in Madurai

A MASSIVE crowd that exceeded all expectations and pleased Congress(I) president Sonia Gandhi immensely watched the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) reunite with the Indian National Congress on August 14 at a venue christened "Moopanar Thidal" on the outskirts of Madurai. It was not a commandeered crowd; it consisted of ordinary workers of the two parties who came on their own from different parts of Tamil Nadu. It was a youthful crowd too. No wonder Sonia Gandhi remarked, "I thank you all from my heart for this wonderful meeting."

Earlier, in Pondicherry, the Puducherry Makkal Congress, led by P. Kannan, merged with the Congress(I) in her presence. The Pondicherry unit of the TMC also joined the Congress(I).

K. GANESAN
At the rally in Madurai, Congress(I) president Sonia Gandhi with (to her right) TMC president G.K. Vasan. Among others in the picture, Ramesh Chennithala, AICC secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu, party leader Mani Shankar Aiyar and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee chief E.V.K.S. Ilangovan.

Making a forceful speech in Madurai, Sonia Gandhi gave the unified Congress a single-point agenda: to bring the Congress back to power in Tamil Nadu and thus revive "Kamaraj rule'. Although the Congress-speak of reviving Kamaraj rule is old hat, the timing of it makes the composite Congress a potential force in State politics. Besides, this is the birth centenary year of K. Kamaraj, who was Congress president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.

Perhaps judging the mood of party workers, Sonia Gandhi indicated that the unified Congress was preparing to go it alone in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. She said, "For 35 years, Tamil Nadu has been administered by non-Congress parties. During this time, the State has been sunk in politics of hostility." Later, at Chennai airport, she told newsmen: "It is our goal and aim to fight it alone in the State minus the Dravidian parties... Now we are one. We will go from strength to strength." Without naming it, she attacked the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) for discontinuing the free sari and dhoti scheme for the poor, which has affected thousands of handloom weavers in the State. She appealed to Congressmen to "buy handloom (textiles) from the weavers to help them out of their distress".

Preparations for the merger mela began three weeks in advance. The AIADMK government tried to play spoilsport when the police denied permission to hold the public meeting at either the Race Course grounds or the Tamukkam Maidan in Madurai city.

The TMC and the Congress(I), not making political capital out of the issue, chose fallow fields at Mastanpatti, about 7 km from Madurai, as the venue. But in a way this decision helped assess the strength of the rejuvenated Congress. B.S. Gnanadesikan, Rajya Sabha member and former TMC spokesman, said, "The public from Madurai did not attend the meeting because the venue was 7 km away. Those who attended it were the grassroots-level workers of the TMC and the Congress(I), who came on their own."

The merger is a big victory for E.V.K.S. Ilangovan, president of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC), who has taken a strong stand against the party allying itself either with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) or the AIADMK. Ramesh Chennithala, AICC secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu, played a key role in the merger.

Congress(I) workers who attended the function were unanimous that if the faction leaders buried the hatchet and worked together, they could invigorate the party and effectively offer it as an alternative to the Dravidian parties. Factionalism is the bane of the Congress(I) in Tamil Nadu. Infighting continued to rage even when the party was reduced to a rump following the formation of the TMC. The faction leaders include Vazhappadi K. Ramamurthi, K.V. Thangabalu, Ilangovan and Tindivanam K. Ramamurthy. D. Yasodha, a Dalit legislator and Era. Anbarasu, former Lok Sabha member, often strike out on their own. Party leaders speak in different voices on important issues, to the embarrassment of Ilangovan. In spite of all this, Ilangovan has commanded the trust of Sonia Gandhi with his anti-AIADMK stand.

The meeting was an all-out TMC affair. Hundreds of TMC flags with the bicycle symbol fluttered all over the venue. There were cut-outs of Kamaraj, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and G.K. Moopanar. But the event was not without hiccups. Four TMC legislators - D. Kumaradoss, S.S. Mani Nadar, M.A. Hakeem and R. Eswaran - and a Republican Party of India MLA who contested on the TMC symbol refused to play ball. They argued that Moopanar wanted only "coordination" with the Congress(I), not outright merger. They wrote separate letters to State Assembly Speaker K. Kalimuthu requesting that they be allowed to continue as TMC legislators. Kalimuthu conceded their demand on August 19.

G.K. Vasan, the TMC's leader, contested the decision. He said he had informed the Election Commission that no one should use the TMC symbol or flag and that he would proceed in the matter legally. In Pondicherry too, TMC legislator C. Jayakumar did not accept the merger. Congress sources indicated that Eswaran and Mani Nadar would soon relent.

On August 16, Sonia Gandhi, after Chennithala and Ilangovan met her in New Delhi, announced a 30-member coordination committee to prepare a plan to rebuild the party in Tamil Nadu. The revamping of the TNCC might take a couple of months. After that, a campaign would begin to enrol members. (At the merger meeting, Sonia Gandhi appointed Vasan AICC secretary.)

Ilangovan made it clear to the high command that the TNCC should form a Third Front with parties other than the DMK and the AIADMK. This was put to test during the panchayat elections in the State in October 2001. Sonia Gandhi reportedly agreed with Ilangovan. A long-time Congress-watcher said, "Mere anti-Jayalalithaa (State Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary) statements will not carry conviction with the people. Until now the Congress has been merely reactive, and not proactive."

The TNCC is keen to build the party before the Lok Sabha elections. If it does not, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is working on these lines, could occupy that space. A Congress leader said that after the merger the party's vote share in Tamil Nadu stood at around 22 per cent. He calculated thus: "If we can attract 10 per cent more votes by building up the party or by aligning with smaller parties, we can be the number one in a three-cornered contest. But we shall not talk of alliance now. We shall build up the party."

The TMC was strapped for cash, and this is what hastened the merger. Moopanar and others founded the TMC in April 1996, breaking away from the Congress(I) in protest against the then Congress president and Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao's decision to align the party with the AIADMK. In the May 1996 Assembly elections the nascent TMC, in alliance with the DMK, scored a big victory. When Sitaram Kesri became Congress(I) president in September 1996, Moopanar was keen on coordination with the parent party. After Sonia Gandhi assumed party leadership in April 1998, Moopanar, a staunch Nehru-Indira Gandhi loyalist, became even more keen on merger. Sonia Gandhi chose to align the party with the AIADMK in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections and the TMC then contested as part of a Third Front. All its candidates were defeated.

However, the TMC reversed its stand and contested the May 2001 Assembly elections as an ally of the AIADMK and the Congress(I). Moopanar held discussions with Jayalalithaa on seat-sharing on behalf of the Congress(I) too. This brought the TMC and the Congress(I) together. It also showed Sonia Gandhi's trust in Moopanar. As a goodwill gesture, Moopanar allotted 15 out of the 47 seats allotted by the AIADMK to the Congress(I). The TMC won 22 seats and the Congress seven.

Discussions on the formalities of the merger started in August 2001. Moopanar died the next month. Vasan, who succeeded him as TMC president, toured the State for several months in order to convince party workers and leaders about the merger plan. TMC leaders were worried that in the event of the merger they would lose their independence and decisions would be thrust on them from New Delhi. Sonia Gandhi has reportedly assured them that she would grant the composite Congress enough autonomy in local affairs. On July 8, the TMC general council ratified the merger.

At the merger mela, Ilangovan was confident that the Congress(I) would regain strength in Tamil Nadu soon. Chennithala said that the merger also capped the return of Kumari Ananthan's Thondar Party and Vazhappadi K. Ramamurthi's Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress to the Congress(I) fold.

The question of the ownership of Satyamurthi Bhavan, which was a bone of contention between the TMC and the Congress, has become a non-issue now. It belongs to the Tamil Nadu Congress Charitable Trust and the TMC used it as its headquarters, paying rent to the Trust. The TMC vacated it on August 14 and the unified Congress will move in there by August end.