G. K. Moopanar

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G.K. Moopanar (Tamil: முப்பனார்) (1931-2001) was a senior Tamil Nadu politician with ties to the Indian National Congress. He was a powerful All India Congress Committee general secretary from 1980 to 1988. He was a Rajya Sabha member when he died.

Moopanar did not get along well Narasimha Rao, who was the Prime Minister of India from 1991-96. He parted ways with Rao on the issue on his joining hands with the AIADMK and founded his own party, the Tamil Maanila Congress(TMC). Despite this Moopanar remained loyal to the Congress ideology.

Moopanar came very close to becoming the Prime Minister of India in 1997 when Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Jyoti Basu asked him to lead a Congress supported government. He however declined the offer.[1]

Moopanar decided to align himself with the AIADMK in 2001, a surprise move considering his party, the TMC, had been founded to protest the Congress' tying up with the AIADMK. This led to the senior TMC leader P Chidambaram parting ways with Moopanar and creating another party called the Congress Jananayaka Peravai. After Moopanar's death both TMC and Chidambaram's group merged back with the Congress.