THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress central leadership has decided to invite former state Congress president Mullappally Ramachandran to New Delhi who has been a wounded lot, after Ramesh Chennithala apprised Rahul Gandhi, MP, about him. This comes after Chennithala was huddled with Rahul Gandhi and also after he held telephonic discussion with senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy to appease the senior leaders following the turmoil caused by the appointment of the new Opposition Leader.
When senior leaders were huddled at Indira Bhavan on Wednesday before K Sudhakaran took over as the state Congress president, he had apprised everyone about the deep hurt he had faced following the poll drubbing. When it was the collective leadership of the Congress which led the assembly elections, a section of leaders had heaped the blame on him. His grievance was that the same set of people had not bothered to congratulate him when he led the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections where 19 seats were won by the UDF. Chennithala in his meeting with Rahul Gandhi conveyed the feelings of Mullappally.
A source close to Chennithala told TNIE that both Mullappally and Oommen Chandy will also be invited to meet Rahul Gandhi in near future. “The central leadership realised that observer Mallikarjun Kharge who had come down to oversee the election of Congress Legislative Party leader had not shown his political maturity towards the trio, especially towards Chennithala. Now Rahul Gandhi is keen to ensure that a seasoned leader like Chennithala’s expertise and acumen in handling complex issues are given due consideration,” said a source.
However, Mullappally told TNIE that he has not heard from the central leadership yet and if invited, he will take a call then. Before leaving New Delhi, Chennithala met Congress Working Committee leaders A K Antony, K C Venugopal, Tariq A nwar and Mukul Wasnik. After the meeting, Tariq said it is the central leadership that should take a call on Chennithala being deputed as a national general secretary to either Punjab or Gujarat. Oommen Chandy is likely to leave for Delhi on Wednesday.