Democracy in bloom: In January 1939, K. Kamaraj proposed the name of his leader S. Satyamurti for the post. Omandur P. Ramaswami Reddiar was fielded by the rival camp. Satyamurti lost by 90-125 votes. On February 15, 1940, Kamaraj was elected by a mere three votes. In August 1977, G.K. Moopanar won by securing 320 votes, defeating Pazha Nedumaran and Thanjai Ramamurthi.
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HINDU ARCHIVES
The appointment of nominated presidents or “unanimous election” of presidents has become a norm in many parties. What was less known was that the Congress in Tamil Nadu had seen several contests for the post of president, even when at the all-India level, the practice was to zero in on a consensus candidate and get him or her elected to the post of All India Congress Committee (AICC) president in 1930s.
In December 1936, C.N. Muthuranga Mudaliar, a Member of the Central Legislative Assembly, defeated S. Satyamurti, who held the post of Congress president since May 1935, consequent to the resignation of C. Rajagopalachari or Rajaji.
At a meeting of the elected members of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) in Vellore, Mudaliar polled 104 votes and Satyamurti 59. For the post of vice-president too, the contest took place between A. Vedaratnam Pillai and N. Annamalai Pillai. Vedaratnam Pillai won hands down by 60-19, according to a report published in The Hindu dated December 6, 1936.
For the post of secretary, on the suggestion of Annamalai Pillai, Satyamurti was elected unanimously as one of the two secretaries. The other secretary was C.P. Subbiah, who challenged K. Kamaraj, a prominent member of Satyamurti’s camp, four years later.
Satyamurti defeated again
Muthuranga Mudaliar held the post for over two years. In January 1939, when the election for the chief was due, Kamaraj, a growing star of the Congress after having participated in the Salt Satyagraha March led by Rajaji from Tiruchi to Vedaranyam over a distance of 240 km in April 1930 and become a Member of the Madras Legislative Assembly, proposed the name of his leader Satyamurti.
This time, Omandur P. Ramaswami Reddiar was fielded as the other contestant by the rival camp. The Satyamurti camp was in for a shock. Its leader lost again by 90-125 votes, said a report of The Hindu on January 29, 1939. Satyamurti decided not to seek re-election hereafter and work for the election of his follower, Kamaraj, as the president next time.
At a meeting held on the campus of Hindi Prachar Sabha at T. Nagar, Chennai, on February 15, 1940, Annamalai Pillai proposed the name of Kamaraj, who was the then president of the Ramanathapuram district congress committee, while Muthuranga Mudaliar proposed Subbiah. In a close battle, Kamaraj made it to the post by three votes (103 to 100). It marked the beginning of the ‘Kamaraj era’ in the TNCC.
In the coming years, Kamaraj became a bigger leader and virtually unchallenged, though he had earned his own share of critics in and outside the party. After 12 years of leadership, he decided to lay down the office, and there was no contest for his successor. He briefly held the post again till he became the Chief Minister in April 1954.
In fact, till his death in October 1975, either in the Congress (with which he was associated till the 1969 split) or the Congress (Organisation) thereafter, no contest was held for the post of State president. Incumbents were all selected through, what was famously called, unanimity.
Split in the Congress
Among those who held the post in the 1950s and 1960s were P. Subbaroyan, L.S. Karalayar, P. Kakkan (first Scheduled Caste leader to hold the post in December 1954), K. Rajaram Naidu, O.V. Alagesan, R. Krishnaswamy Naidu, C. Subramaniam (who got the post in December 1967 after his defeat in the Lok Sabha election held earlier that year), and Kakkan again.
The split in the Congress in 1969 saw R.V. Swaminathan heading the group owing allegiance to the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. In December 1972, P. Ramachandran, or Pa Raa, who later became Energy Minister in the Morarji Desai-led Janata Party government of 1977-79, succeeded Kakkan as the chief of the Congress (Organisation), which was how the faction loyal to Kamaraj was known.
The death of the former Chief Minister in October 1975 expedited the process of merger of a breakaway group of the Congress (O), led by G.K. Moopanar, with the Congress or Congress (R) in February 1976. Pa Raa stayed back in the Congress (O), which became a constituent of the Janata Party in 1977, while Moopanar became the chief of the unified Congress.
Congress unseated
After Indira Gandhi lost power and the Congress was unseated in the 1977 Lok Sabha election, the clamour grew for a contest for the post of TNCC president. In August 1977 (nearly after over 35 years), there was a contest when Pazha Nedumaran, former secretary of the Congress and now in non-electoral politics, took on Moopanar. There was one more contestant: Thanjai Ramamurthi. Out of 611 members of the Pradesh Congress Committee, 542 voted. Moopanar secured 320 votes, followed by Mr. Nedumaran with 212 votes, and Thanjai Ramamurthi 10 votes, according to The Hindu on August 11, 1977. For hardly one-and-a-half years, Moopanar lasted in his post as the party had suffered another split in January 1978 and he identified himself with the group led by Indira Gandhi. In March 1979, he was replaced as the chief of the Congress (Indira) by Swaminathan. Since then, there has only been a “reign of nominated presidents” not only in the Congress but also in other parties.
Thangkabalu, unanimous choice
When the Congress, after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, saw contests in the 1990s to the posts of members of the Congress Working Committee and presidents of many State units, Tamil Nadu was an outlier, with the “unanimous election” of K.V. Thangkabalu in June 1997.
