Tamil Maanila Congress

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) ( Tamil : தமிழ் மாநில காங்கிரஸ் Tamiḻ Mānila Kāṅkiras [ ˈt̪amɨɻ ˈmaːnilə ˈkaːŋɡɨrəs ], "Tamil State Congress "), officially Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) (TMC (M)) is a regional party from the Indian state of Nadu . It was formed in 1996 by GK Moopanar as a regional split from the Indian National Congress . After Moopanar's death, the TMC reunited with the Congress Party in 2002. In 2014 the TMC was re-established under the leadership of GK Moopanar's son GK Vasan .

The TMC from 1996 to 2002

The Tamil Maanila Congress split off from the Congress Party in the run-up to the 1996 general election in India . The reason was the decision of the leadership of the Congress Party led by the Indian Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao to form an electoral alliance in Tamil Nadu with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) party. The AIADMK ruled Tamil Nadu since 1991, but had lost massively in popularity in the state due to a series of corruption scandals. The regional leadership of the Congress Party in Tamil Nadu therefore turned against an alliance with the AIADMK, which was ignored by the Congress leadership. Against this background, the TMC was founded in April 1996 under the leadership of GK Moopanar , one of the leading congress politicians in Tamil Nadu at the time. The party was officially listed as the Tamil Maanila Congress (Moopanar) (TMC (M)) by the Indian Electoral Commission .

For the all-India parliamentary election in May 1996 and the simultaneous election of the state parliament of Tamil Nadu, the TMC allied itself with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party, the main competitor of the AIADMK. The parties reached an agreement in which they divided the constituencies among themselves. In the election for Lok Sabha , the TMC was allowed to run in the majority of the constituencies, while in the election for the Tamil Nadu parliament the DMK ran in the majority of the constituencies. The TMC-DMK alliance was extremely successful: In the Lok Sabha election, the TMC competed in 20 of 39 constituencies of Tamil Nadu and was successful in all of them, in the state election it won 39 of 40 contested seats (out of a total of 234 seats) , while the DMK achieved an absolute majority and was thus able to set up a sole government in Tamil Nadu. The Congress party was virtually eliminated in Tamil Nadu and received nothing in both the Lok Sabha and regional elections in the state. At the all-India level, the TMC participated in the minority government led by Janata Dal after the election . In the cabinet of HD Deve Gowda the TMC politician P. Chidambaram was appointed finance minister.

The HD Deve Gowda government lasted only two years, so there was another Lok Sabha election in 1998 . In the election, the TMC renewed its alliance with the DMK, but fared significantly worse and only won 3 out of 20 constituencies in which it ran. The reason for the poor performance was the success of the AIADMK, which had allied itself with the India-wide victorious Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the new election in 1999 , the DMK allied with the BJP and the AIADMK with the congress party. The TMC formed a “third front” in association with the smaller Dalit parties Puthiya Tamilagam and Dalit Panthers of India , but received nothing in the election.

In Tamil Nadu, the TMC has meanwhile approached the AIADMK again. In 2000 he supported the AIADMK candidates in the by-elections for three seats in the Tamil Nadu parliament. In the run-up to the 2001 federal state elections, the TMC joined an alliance led by the AIADMK. The decision was controversial within the party and led to a split in which a faction led by P. Chidambaram left the TMC. As a result of the election, the AIADMK alliance was successful. The TMC won 23 of the 32 seats it contested.

The founder of the TMC, GK Moopanar, died in August 2001. The party leadership was then taken over by his son GK Vasan . Under Vasan's leadership, the TMC reunited with the Congress Party. After Sonia Gandhi replaced PV Narasimha Rao in 1998 as Congress party leader, the two parties gradually came closer together again. Most recently, both parties participated in the state elections in Tamil Nadu in the AIADMK-led electoral alliance. The unification of TMC and the Congress Party was finally completed in August 2002. GK Vasan was appointed Federal Minister in the Manmohan Singh cabinet in 2004 .

The TMC since 2014

GK Vasan (center): Leader of the re-established TMC

In November 2014, the Tamil Maanila Congress was re-established under the leadership of GK Vasan. The background to this was the catastrophic election defeat of the Congress party in the parliamentary elections in India in 2014 . GK Vasan said the nationwide Congress leadership did not understand the problems in Tamil Nadu. The immediate trigger for the split was the decision by the Congress leadership that the Tamil Nadu national association was no longer allowed to issue membership cards with the likeness of K. Kamaraj and GK Moopanar. The two Tamil Congress politicians are highly respected in Tamil Nadu, so the decision was seen as an affront.

Individual evidence

  1. Frontline 18 (7) (March 31 - April 13, 2001): A revolt in Tamil Nadu.
  2. Frontline 19 (18) (August 31 - September 13, 2002): A merger mela.
  3. ^ The Hindu, November 29, 2014: "Tamil Maanila Congress is reborn".
  4. Frontline, December 12, 2014: "Split after defeat".