CHENNAI, Dec 21: Dissident Congress leader and former TNCC chief Vazhapadi K Ramamurthy who quit the party to float his own outfit, the Tamil Nadu Makkal Congress (Tamil Nadu People's Congress-TNPC), has officially cemented an alliance with the AIADMK (J) front led by J Jayalalitha.The split, though not unexpected, is bound to cripple the faction-ridden TNCC further, with the party also having been unable to swing an alliance with the AIADMK (J). The rebel leader who has been functioning as the head of a `parallel organisation', held a meeting of his supporters at his residence in the city on Sunday to endorse the split from the TNCC and announce the formation of a new party.A resolution to this effect passed at the meeting stated that the Congress was being destroyed by the present ``ineffective'' leadership both in the All-India Congress (I) as well as the TNCC and that several pleas for change had fallen on deaf ears. And in the present political scenario in Tamil Nadu, the only way the TNCC could be saved was by forming a new party under the leadership of Ramamurthy, it said. Ramamurthy said his party would align with the AIADMK (J), adding that a four-member panel had been constituted to hold seat-sharing and other alliance-related talks with the AIADMK (J) leaders.
