Chennai: Fighting for its survival after the humiliating defeat in 2016 Assembly elections, Tamil Maanila Congress on Thursday found a reason to remain politically relevant in Tamil Nadu. The party, a splinter group of the Congress, has announced its support for AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) led by former chief minister O. Panneerselvam in the R K Nagar by poll.

In carefully choreographed events, Mr Panneerselvam met TMC chief G. K. Vasan at his residence and sought his party's support for his camp's candidate E. Madhusudhanan. Within an hour, Vasan drove to the former chief minister's residence and addressed the media during which he announced the understanding that has been arrived at between the two parties.

TMC was not accommodated in the AIADMK-led alliance in 2016 Assembly elections by the then Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa after the Vasan-led party refused to contest on "Two Leaves" symbol. The party contested the Assembly elections as part of the PWA-DMDK alliance but drew a blank. Since then there has been lot of bad blood since majority of the TMC leaders flocked to AIADMK when Jayalalithaa was alive.

On Thursday, Mr Panneerselvam reached out to Mr Vasan and he reciprocated almost immediately. Mr Vasan said he decided to support Mr Panneerselvam's camp since had the support of people of TN.

"I toured 26 districts in Tamil Nadu and majority of our office bearers and party cadre want TMC to support O. Panneerselvam. People are with him and they feel he is a good leader. Since he is in people's heart, we decided to support him. TMC will support Madhusudhanan in RK Nagar by poll," Mr Vasan said.

Thanking Mr Vasan for his support, Mr Panneerselvam said: "Mr Vasan's father G.K. Moopanar used to extend his support to justice. I am happy his son is following in his footsteps and listening to the voice of people."