MONTREAL—Gilles Duceppe is set to take back the reins of the Bloc Québécois, the sovereigntist political party he led in the House of Commons from 1997 to 2011, according to multiple media reports Tuesday morning.

The reports said that Duceppe is poised to take over the post from current leader Mario Beaulieu. Beaulieu took over the post from Daniel Paillé, who led the party briefly after Duceppe lost his seat in the last federal election and the party was reduced to a four-seat rump in the Commons.

Rumours started circulating Monday night after Beaulieu issued a mysterious message on his Twitter account saying that he had asked Duceppe to participate in the upcoming election campaign and that he had accepted. Beaulieu said that Duceppe’s role was still to be decided.

But it seems that Duceppe has been thinking about this for some time already.

Montreal’s La Presse reported that Duceppe's decision to jump back into politics was preceded by a secret telephone poll which found he would win three times more support as Bloc leader than Beaulieu, a French-language activist who was president of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste before running for the party's leadership.

Beaulieu was a divisive figure in the independence movement. Though he won the leadership by garnering the support from young sovereigntists, his leadership was met with a wave of resignations from riding executives, nominated candidates and two Bloc MPs, Jean-Francois Fortin and André Bellevance.

Beaulieu took over the post from Daniel Paillé, who led the party briefly after Duceppe lost his seat in the last federal election and the party was reduced to a four-seat rump in the Commons.

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