Though the faction headed by Union Minister G K Vasan continues to maintain its upper hand in Tamil Nadu Congress, the Youth Congress election results indicates that Karthi Chidambaram is rising fast in the organisation and posing a serious challenge to Vasan’s supremacy.
Since the elections to the Youth Congress are held based on Parliamentary seats, much importance is attached to it as the group that controls the Parliamentary constituency is expected to have an upper hand during allotment of seats in the forthcoming Parliamentary elections.
The supporters of Karthi won in 13 of the Parliamentary constituencies while Vasan’s group garnered about 16 seats. The rest of the seats went to other factions, including that of R Prabhu, KV Thangkabalu, Manick Tagore, EVKS Elangovan and others, according to party sources.
During the last Youth Congress elections, Karthi Chidambaram’s group won in only six seats while Vasan’s supporters garnered 22. This year, the Karthi faction has made significant gains at the cost of the Vasan group.
In the elections held on the basis of Assembly constituencies, it was a close race between the two groups with each gaining control of about 85 seats. Last time, Karthi’s supporters got control of about 30 seats, while Vasan’s group took more than 110 seats. The major consolation for Vasan’s supporters is the re-election of M Yuvaraja as the youth Congress leader.
When the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) under GK Moopanar broke away from the parent organisation in 1996, a majority of Congressmen went with him. The party scored a huge win in the 1996 Parliamentary and Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu held simultaneously.
Both the TMC and Congress joined the AIADMK alliance in the 2001 Assembly elections. When the TMC merged with the Congress after the 2001 Assembly elections it became dominant. After Moopanar’s demise, his followers still support his son Vasan.
Comments
0 comment