THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Giving strong indications that all is not well in the Congress camp, the party’s state president Mullappally Ramachandran kept away from the UDF coordination committee meeting held here on Friday.
Sources close to Mullappally said he skipped the meeting since he has already decided to step down from the post of party chief and is only a caretaker now. RSP leader Shibu Baby John too stayed away from the meeting. Sources said he is not happy with the way his party was treated by the UDF in recent times.
The coalition partners who spoke at the meeting stressed the failure of the front in foreseeing the pro-LDF wave. The front misjudged the public feeling by seeing the crowd in the Aiswarya Kerala Yathra led by Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala.
‘UDF has still time to regain lost ground’
The decision by the Kerala Congress (M) and the Janata Dal factions to sever ties with the UDF was also a setback. Smaller parties like CMP and Forward Bloc said they were humiliated by the UDF by not giving due consideration in the election.However, Muslim League general secretary P K Kunhalikutty said all is not lost and the UDF has still the time to regain lost ground.
Senior Congress leaders Oommen Chandy and Chennithala did not say anything at the meeting. Chennithala did not take part actively in the discussion in the wake of the decision to remove him from the post of Congress Legislature Party leader in the assembly.
Meanwhile, UDF convenor M M Hassan told mediapersons after the meeting that the front would study the circumstances that led to its poor poll performance in detail. “A one-day meeting will be convened to study the reasons behind the poll debacle.
The performance of Chennithala as the Opposition leader was outstanding and the party had fared well at least in some pockets because of that,” said Hassan, who said he did not have any issues if he is removed from the post of convenor. The UDF meeting also elected V D Satheeshan as the UDF chairman.