GK Vasan being congratulated by his supporters. PTI
Hours after senior Congress leader from Tamil Nadu, GK Vasan, announced that he would quit the party and launch his own, the Congress expelled him.
The 49-year-old, who served for eight years as a minister in Dr Manmohan Singh's government, has said he would choose his new party's name soon and reveal the details at a rally in Trichy.
Vasan's father GK Moopanar was a Congress heavyweight who served as the party general secretary for eight years - from 1980 to 1988. But he split from the mothership in 1996 to form his own party, the Tamil Maanila Congress.
He said he could not accept then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao's decision to continue the alliance with the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu ahead for the 1996 assembly elections.
Moopanar partnered with the DMK headed by M Karunanidhi and swept the elections.
It was Sonia Gandhi who had brought Vasan back to the Congress fold in 2002, a year after his father's death. While attending Moopanar's funeral, she had said that despite the break from the Congress, Moopanar had remained a Congressman at heart.
A year down the line, Vasan had agreed to merge his party with the Congress. Vasan says that while he was grateful to the Gandhis for accommodating him for 14 years, his party will be noted for quick decisions and rewarding people based on merit, implying that he believes neither is a trademark of the party he has opted out of.
Vasan has never run for Parliament. A two-time Rajya Sabha member, his last term ended this March. But given his strained relations with Rahul Gandhi, it was unlikely that he would get a Rajya Sabha nomination again.
Vasan's move has been well-timed to benefit from the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, which will be held two years down the line.
His goal, he said, was to "bring back the Kamaraj rule in Tamil Nadu". K Kamaraj, freedom fighter, former chief minister of Tamil Nadu and a posthumous recipient of Bharat Ratna for his enlightened policies, was the political mentor of his father GK Moopanar.
The strategy, Vasan indicated, would pay off. Though at least three legislators are expected to join his new party, it is the people's support that counts, he said. Though he has never been tested at the hustings, Vasan's followers claim he has widespread support in the state.
A graduate from the Madras University in Corporate Secretaryship, Vasan is married and has a son.