PUDUCHERRY: Congress president Sonia Gandhi has selected P Kannan as the party candidate for the Rajya Sabha election in Puducherry. With this, Kannan, man of many parties and many mergers, has finally managed to get recognition from the party.
Because of differences of opinion, Kannan had quit the Congress three times.
In the first instance, he became the leader of Tamil Maanila Congress, founded by G K Moopanar.
After a while, he floated Puducherry Makkal Congress and later Puducherry Munnetra Congress (PMC). The PMC got Election Commission’s recognition.
An interesting aspect of all his parties is that they all end with ‘Congress’.
It is alleged that Kannan switched over from the Congress because he and his supporters were not properly recognised in the party.
When he was in the Congress fold in 1991, he expected the Chief Minister’s post. But, the Congress gave him the Speaker’s post instead.
During his tenure as Speaker, he allegedly gave more time to the opposition parties to air their views on various issues in the Assembly.
This reportedly did not gel well with the ruling party members.
At one stage, they even staged a walk out from the Assembly against Kannan’s attitude.
When G K Moopanar floated the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) in Tamil Nadu, Kannan was appointed as its leader in Puducherry.
Under his leadership, the party became part of the coalition government as well. Later when TMC merged with the Congress, Kannan was offered the PWD Minister’s post in the P Shanmugham-led Cabinet.
Due to differences of opinion, he was later dismissed from Shanmugam’s Cabinet.
Following this, he floated Puducherry Makkal Congress. In 2001 elections, his party had four MLAs.
Following some sort of compromise, he merged with the Congress and a grand reception attended by Sonia Gandhi was organised in his honour.
But it did not last long. He again left the Congress and floated another party - Puducherry Munnetra Congress.
Recently, it merged with the Congress once again.
The present Rajya Sabha nomination is very much a reward for supporting V Narayanasamy, Congress candidate for the Puducherry Lok Sabha seat, during the election.
Now, Kannan’s three MLAs also expect to clinch the chairman posts of government boards and corporation as well.
