THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress group war, which has been dormant for quite some time now, is set to erupt following the Supreme Court verdict on ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in the infamous spy case. The immediate reactions by K Karunakaran’s children Padmaja Venugopal and K Muraleedharan MLA have only added political zing to the post-verdict brouhaha.
Padmaja alleged that five Congress leaders were behind dragging her father’s name in the ISRO case. She said she will depose before the judicial commission that her father had told her that people close to him were involved. However, her brother Muraleedharan said in a press meet that it was former PM P V Narasimha Rao, who backstabbed Karunakaran and that no one else was involved.
A senior Congress leader said Muraleedharan has a secret pact with Oommen Chandy to become the Opposition leader by unseating Ramesh Chennithala, and because of this, he will not speak against Chandy now. KPCC President MM Hassan and Chennithala declined to comment. For the past several years, the ‘I’ group in the Congress has been playing second fiddle to the ‘A’ group after Oommen Chandy took over the reins of the latter.
T H Mustafa, former food and civil supplies minister and a confidant of Karunakaran, told reporters that the Congress leaders will have to give a lot of answers on what they have done to Karunakaran. ‘A’ group and its leader Oomen Chandy is on the back foot in this regard. However, the strong position taken by Muraleedharan is surprising even the ‘A’ group leaders.
AICC secretary Krishnan Sreenivasan, who was the officer on special duty to Karunakaran during the days of his resignation, told Express: “Of course, it was a political conspiracy to unseat the powerful Karunakaran, but I don’t know who was behind it; several bigwigs are involved.”