(Sandeep Phukan is Deputy National Editor with NDTV)The Congress took a little over four hours to respond to G K Vasan's much-televised press conference where he announced his decision to quit the party and his plans to revive his father G K Moopanar's legacy. In other words, bring the Tamil Manila Congress, a breakaway Congress group, to life once again.
Vasan is not as high-profile in New Delhi as his more famous party colleagues from the state, P Chidambaram and Mani Shankar Aiyar; he certainly enjoys more political clout. Of the five Congress MLAs in the Tamil Nadu legislature, three of them have come out in support of Vasan.
"I want to categorically state that there is no split of the Congress party. Yes, a few of them have left, but a majority of the members are with us. All the former Pradesh Congress presidents, district presidents, former MPs and many senior leaders are with us," declared Mukul Wasnik, Congress in-charge for Tamil Nadu, when we asked for his response to the political turmoil in the Congress in the state.
Please note Wasnik's stress on the word "former" to describe party MPs and MLAs.
The Congress has been out of power on its own strength for the past 47 years in Tamil Nadu. The grand old party has been a bridesmaid either to DMK or the AIADMK for over two decades now.
"Without Vasan, Congress in Tamil Nadu would be nothing. He not only carries his father's legacy but also his own followers," says A Vaidyanathan, our colleague at NDTV who is counted as one of the finest journalists from Tamil Nadu.
Congress insiders counter this: they say for the past 12 years, all the party functionaries have been either Vasan's nominees or had his backing. "You have been a Union Minister in UPA. You claim to be a big leader. So why could you not forge a credible alliance with parties other than DMK or AIADMK? There was a Pradesh Congress but they held no election meeting, didn't quite recommend candidates. Why did this happen?" says one of the senior-most leaders of the Congress party.
But Vasan's exit is perhaps indicative of the churn that the Congress is going through. The party that was ruling India not so long ago, is reduced to 44 MPs, it recently lost Maharashtra and Haryana, and is trying to find diplomatic answers to questions being asked about Rahul Gandhi's leadership.
"I don't think it's any reflection on the leadership. On the contrary, it's a reflection on the individual. In fact, when we were in power, maybe some people wanted a share in that power. Now that we are in Opposition, the situation has changed," said Wasnik, adding, "We are confident that we will regain a position of strength with the present leadership."
Sandeep Dikshit, another spokesperson, had this to say: "Congress does not go for knee-jerk reactions. Please give us time and we will get back to our basics. Every party has their own momentum and we will find ours."
Yes, that's true. BJP needed a Narendra Modi to make history this year after the BJP lost out to the UPA in 2004 and 2009. So the big question now is: who will be Narendra Modi for the Congress? Will it be someone from the Gandhi-Nehru family or will the Congress look outside?
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