It was founded in 2001 by former union finance minister P. Chidambaram, as a splinter group of the Tamil Maanila Congress, when the TMC allied itself with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

2001 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election P. Chidambaram other side Party DMK-BJP (NDA) Joint Meet to Assembly election.

In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections Chidambaram ran as the Indian National Congress candidate from Sivagangai, and won with 400 393 votes (60,01%).

[citation needed] On 25 November 2004 CJP merged into the Indian National Congress.

In the end the merger was pushed through by the national Congress leadership.