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Moopanar slams door in Sonia's face

The Tamil Maanila Congress has finally decided -- nope, no merger with the Congress.

On Sunday, a resolution to this effect was adopted at the party's political affairs committee, attended by state office-bearers, district presidents, MPs and MLAs.

The resolution, which TMC spokesman B S Gnanadedsikan released to the media later, said the party was born in 1996 to fill a political vacuum. Those conditions still remained, and the party would never merge with any other party.

Gnanadesikan declined to clarify any point relating to the resolution.

The definitive stand comes in the wake of the Congress' cold shouldering TMC president G K Moopanar's offer of co-ordinating with the Congress at the national level.

The TMC took birth to protest against the Congress decision to have an electoral alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. After Sonia Gandhi took over as party president, there was talk of a possible merger. However, an influential section of the party opposed the move, wanting the TMC to maintain its identity.

The merger move was bound to be spiked with Sonia's appointing Tindivanam K Ramamurthy, a known opponent of Moopanar, as the new Tamil Nadu Congress committee president.

Ramamurthy set in motion a move for bringing TMC members back to the Congress fold, by engineering dissension there. Former MP Adaikalaraj recently left the TMC for the Congress.

The TMC's decision not to merge with any party comes at a time when its relationship with its ally, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is strained.

UNI

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