Chennai, Sept. 1 :    Chennai, Sept. 1:  The Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) today elected G.K. Moopanar's son, G.K. Vasan, president of the party. Vasan's name has been doing the round since Moopanar took ill. Even as the preparations for Moopanar's cremation was under way, pressure was mounting in the party to make Vasan the chief. 'Our party workers will not accept anybody else as he is the most natural choice,' a TMC source said. When Moopanar's condition had turned critical, party functionaries had informally met and decided to elect Vasan 'working president', sources said. But Moopanar's family members were averse to the idea for 'sentimental reasons', sources said, adding his death changed the situation. The TMC's general council will meet to ratify the election of Vasan. Vasan was the unanimous choice of both old-timers and youngsters for taking over as president at a meeting of party MPs, MLAs, office-bearers and district chiefs at Sathyamurthy Bhavan, the TMC's headquarters, here. The meeting, in which former Union minister Jayanthi Natarajan participated, was presided over by TMC legislature party leader S.R. Balasubramoniyan. His name to chair the meeting was proposed and seconded by TMC MPs Peter Alphonse and B.S. Gnanadesikan. Moopanar had declined to nominate Vasan to the Rajya Sabha recently. It is learnt that the 37-year-old Vasan has been catapulted to the top slot to avert a split.