G. K. Moopanar

Who was G. K. Moopanar?

G.K. Moopanar was a senior Indian National Congress leader, a veteran Parliamentarian and a noted philanthropist. He was an All India Congress Committee general secretary from 1980 to 1988. Moopanar was a close associate of Congress leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, K Kamaraj.

He was a very powerful Congress leader who was known to have turned down high-ranking cabinet positions multiple times. He was once offered the Defense Cabinet Minister position by Indira Gandhi and he refused to take it. Like Kamaraj, Moopanar was known as the "King Maker."

Moopanar parted ways with Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao on the issue on his joining hands with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and founded his own party, the Tamil Maanila Congress.

Moopanar came very close to becoming the Prime Minister of India in 1997 when Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Jyoti Basu asked him to lead the United Front government supported by Congress. He however declined the offer, as had his mentor Kamaraj.

After the demise of Moopanar, under the new leadership of his son G K Vasan, the TMC merged back with the Congress led by Sonia Gandhi.