KOCHI: The emerging youth brigade in Congress, which raised the banner for a generational shift, reiterated their demand on Friday calling for more representation for young and fresh faces in the party leadership and rejected allegation they were Oommen Chandy’s ‘B’ team, as suggested by P J Kurien.
“It’s absurd to even suggest we were instigated by Oommen Chandy. It (Kurien’s statement) doesn’t deserve any explanation,” said Roji M John, one of the five MLAs who initiated the generational-shift discussion.
VT Balram said, “Ours was an issue-based demand. We’re sticking to our call for a generational change in the party, and will continue to fight for it.” To allude Chandy was behind the young MLAs is to “question our collective thinking and intellect”, he said.Hibi Eden pointed out the five MLAs do not belong to any particular group. “We cut across all groups. So there’s no question of acting on behalf of anyone to target (Shri) Kurien,” said Hibi.
Balram (representing Thrithala), Roji (Angamaly), Hibi (Ernakulam), Anil Akkara (Wadakkancherry) and Shafi Parambil (Palakkad) had first publicly demanded that a new and fresh face should be considered for the Rajya Sabha seat following the end of the term for Kurien, a three-time member of the Upper House. They also put forward the names of Shanimol Usman, Rajmohan Unnithan, Mathew Kuzhalnadan, T Sidhique, and M Liju as probable candidates.
“Our fight is not against any individual. We are also not favouring anyone in particular. Our demand was for a generational shift, and to give opportunity to a fresh and young face in the Rajya Sabha. Just because the party leadership has decided to handover the seat to Kerala Congress, our fight won’t end. We’ll continue to raise our demand for a generational change,” said Balram.
ISSUE RAISED IN 2011
Hibi Eden said he had first raised the issue of more representation for youngsters while he was at the helm of NSUI in 2011. “It’s even more important now. It’s the need of the hour,” he said.