PUDUCHERRY: Ahead of the Kamaraj Nagar bypoll, former Puducherry minister P Kannan floated a new political party 'Makkal Munnetra Congress' (MMC) on Wednesday.
The former Rajya Sabha member made this announcement at a meeting of his supporters held at the Kamban Kalai Arangam. This is the third time he has floated a new party, each time ahead of an election. He said that the party would put up a candidate to contest Kamaraj Nagar bypoll, but clarified that he was not the candidate adding that the party was ready to contest in an alliance too.
The veteran Congress leader began his career as Youth Congress president in 1980s. When GK Moopanaar quit the Congress and floated the Tamil Manila Congress, Kannan also started the 'Pondicherry Makkal Congress' on the lines of Moopanaar's party.
He contested the 1996 assembly elections in alliance with the DMK in which it won all the six seats it contested with the alliance defeating the-then ruling Congress. Kannan became the Home Minister in the new government led by RV Janakiraman.
Later, Kannan floated the 'Puducherry Makkal Congress' and 'Puducherry Munnetra Congress', but could not sustain his efforts and merged the parties with Congress each time. After the merger with Congress, Kannan was elected to the Rajya Sabha.
He joined the AIADMK and contested the last assembly elections here as an AIADMK candidate from Raj Bhavan constituency. However, he was defeated by his protegee K Laksminarayanan from Congress. In the next couple of years, he kept away from active politics until he made the recent announcement.