Moopanar resigns from Rajya Sabha

Tamil Maanila Congress supremo G K Moopanar and two of his party colleagues -- Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Jayanti Natarajan and TMC General Secretary S Peter Alphonse -- have resigned their Rajya Sabha seats, which were won on a Congress ticket. They faxed their resignations on Tuesday to Rajya Sabha Chairman, Vice-President Krishna Kant, whom Moopanar met in Delhi on Monday. The resignations have since been accepted.

''We are quitting on technical grounds,'' Moopanar told the media at his headquarters, Satyamurti Bhavan, minutes before the party's district presidents met to discuss ways of strengthening the TMC. The issue was raked up by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Nirupam writing to the Rajya Sabha chairman, pointing out the anomaly of the three TMC leaders continuing as Rajya Sabha members of the Congress even after forming a separate political party at the state-level, and getting themselves formally elected/nominated to various posts after organisational elections a few months ago. An anomaly not approved by the anti-defection law, inviting disqualification for six years.

''It is for Prime Minister I K Gujral to decide,'' Moopanar said, answering a question on Natarajan's continuance in the Union ministry after her quitting Parliament. There is no bar on a person continuing as a minister for six months without being a member of either House of Parliament. Indications are that Gujral and the United Front leadership will not come in the way of Natarajan doing the same.

Moopanar and his colleagues continuing in the Rajya Sabha even after the birth of the TMC has been a dormant political and parliamentary issue all along. Though Moopanar could have continued as an 'unattached member' -- he was formally suspended by the P V Narasimha Rao leadership of the Congress -- it would have hurt his image all the same. The other two politicians, however, had to go once the issue was raked up.

The TMC decision followed extensive legal and parliamentary-level consultations that Moopanar had in Delhi over the weekend. The district presidents meeting, scheduled for Monday, was postponed by a day, and Moopanar utilised the time to call on the vice-president.

Though legal advice gave the party a fair chance of success if it wanted the three leaders to continue in Parliament, it was found politically expedient for Moopanar and others not to lose the case or present themselves as office-seekers in the eyes of Tamil Nadu voters.

Moopanar's not quitting his Rajya Sabha seat, won on the Congress ticket, was seen as one reason for the Left parties not entertaining his prime ministerial candidature when H D Deve Gowda bowed out in April. The Communists were convinced that he was still a Congressman at heart. His elevation without being freshly elected to Parliament would have meant the installation of a Congress prime minister, a possibility the Leftists abhor. However, they did not press the issue when Natarajan was inducted by Gujral, given their love-hate relationship with the TMC leadership.

A Shiv Sena member raising the issue against the TMC leadership implies that the BJP, after all, might have given up hope on a possible tie-up with Moopanar in any post-poll scenario at the Centre.

Says a BJP leader in Madras, "Moopanar is unable to, or unwilling to, forget his Congress past. He spends more time hobnobbing with Congress president Sitaram Kesri, and feels comfortable in the company of leaders with a Congress past.''

EARLIER REPORT:

Moopanar is still a Congress MP!