The Hindu : Flurry of activity in Kannan camp

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 28, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Flurry of activity in Kannan camp

By S. Nadarajan

PONDICHERRY, JAN. 27 . Ever since the senior leader and former Pondicherry Home Minister, P. Kannan, resigned from the ruling Congress on Monday, teams of workers owing allegiance to him have been organising meetings constituencywise to evolve a plan of action.

Within hours of his quitting the party, workers close to Mr. Kannan, meeting in Ariankuppam, welcomed his decision and pledged full support to whatever decision he took.

Today, his supporters met at the residence of a Minister, confidant of Mr. Kannan. The outcome was not known immediately.

Mr. Kannan fielded nine candidates of his Puduchery Makkal Congress — the party he floated in 2000 — in the 2001 Assembly poll. Four of them emerged victorious.

When the Rangasamy Ministry was formed, the PMC merged en bloc with the Congress in October 2001.

Two of the erstwhile PMC MLAs, K. Lakshminarayanan and A. Elumalai, found berths in the Ministry.

The other two, R. Radhakrishnan and P. Rajavelu, have since been appointed chairman of the Slum Clearance Board and the government whip.

Although he did not want to be drawn into any question on his future plan or whether he would contest the Lok Sabha poll as Independent, Mr. Kannan has been holding closed-door meetings with his wellwishers and workers in the party.

Mr. Kannan polled 1,11,737 votes as a nominee of the erstwhile Tamil Maanila Congress in the 1999 Lok Sabha poll, against the Congress' M. O. H. Farook (who emerged victorious) and the Pattali Makkal Katchi's M. Ramadoss.

Observers said that by garnering such a big number of votes, Mr. Kannan proved his individual sway over voters in the Union Territory.

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