Thiruvananthapuram: Congress Members of Parliament (MPs) are in protest over the general meeting of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s leadership that is scheduled to be held on Tuesday. The MPs have conveyed their protest to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Tariq Anwar over the scheduling of the meeting during the Parliament session. The MPs demanded that the meeting should be postponed.
However, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K Sudhakaran informed Tariq Anwar that the meeting cannot be deferred. He explained that the meeting was summoned to discuss the preparations related to the reception for Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad on April 11.
The meeting of the party is being conducted in the absence of the MPs amid the controversy over the allegations raised by the MPs, K Muraleedharan Shashi Tharoor, and M K Raghavan, that they were sidelined in the conduct of the centenary celebrations of the Vaikom satyagraha. The MPs had complained to the All India Congress Committee general secretary, K C Venugopal, that the KPCC leadership has been acting unilaterally ever since it had issued a warning to Muraleedharan and Raghavan. The compromise meeting witnessed fierce arguments.
Most MPs are in protest over the preparations for the Lok Sabha elections not being made on time. Rajmohan Unnithan stated the other day that the MPs had only the one desire that the leadership should extend sufficient help for winning the election. K Muraleedharan has taken the stand that he was not inclined to contest the election. A meeting conducted in Thiruvananthapuram for the election preparations also ended up in arguments between a general secretary of the District Congress Committee and the staff of Tharoor.
In the context of the continuing differences, Tariq Anwar who will reach the capital on Tuesday may attempt to hold conciliatory talks. The first meeting of the State level committee constituted for the reorganization of the party is also likely to hold its meeting.
Muraleedharan explains his Tripura remark
K. Muraleedharan is irked with the fake stories related to his statement in an interview about the role played by Narendra Modi in bringing the BJP to power in Tripura where the party had no mass base. He had made the remark about Tripura while referring to Modi’s statement that BJP would capture Kerala in the near future. “I had said that it was a learning experience for the LDF and UDF in Kerala and that we should move with caution”, clarified the leader.
