Gifting Rajya Sabha seat to KC(M) is a Himalayan blunder, says V M Sudheeran
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:Continuing his tirade against the Congress leadership in the state, former KPCC chief V M Sudheeran said on Wednesday that the decision to gift the Rajya Sabha seat to Kerala Congress (M) was a “Himalayan blunder” and it will weaken the efforts of AICC president Rahul Gandhi to strengthen the UPA ahead of the 2019 general election.
The decision has virtually deprived the UPA of a crucial seat in the Rajya Sabha as the KC(M) - which bargains with multiple fronts at the same time - can’t be treated as a trusted ally. There is no guarantee that the KC(M) will not switch to the NDA camp if a situation arises, he said.Dealing a body blow to the state leadership, Sudheeran said that former chief minister Oommen Chandy always gave him the cold shoulder when he was the KPCC chief.
“Chandy deliberately tried to defeat and belittle the Jana Raksha Yatra and Jana Paksha Yatra led by me,” he alleged.He added that it was Chandy’s ego that forced him to take the extreme step of shutting down 730 bars in the state in a bid to take the credit away from Sudheeran, who had originally demanded a ban on 418 bars.
Sudheeran said it was the group managers who ensured the defeat of the party in the 2016 Assembly election.Commenting on the violation of party discipline by expressing his opinion in public, Sudheeran said it was he who mooted that principle at the party forum when he was the PCC chief.
But the current KPCC chief, M M Hassan, had countered it by calling a press meet at the KPCC headquarters without the party’s nod, he said.
The Congress is in crisis in Kerala and the group managers are responsible for the party’s plight.
The functioning of the Opposition in the state is not satisfactory as it had been keeping a studied silence on many subjects, including the Kovalam palace row and big-ticket land encroachment cases in the state, he said.