THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: State Congress president K Sudhakaran on Saturday warned against any attempt to defame senior Congress leaders at the national level by party workers in public or on social media. “It has come to the notice of KPCC that there were attempts to isolate and attack Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and K C Venugopal. Public social media trial would only weaken the party further. Workers should realise this and back out from such attempts. Stern action will be taken against any worker engaged in such activities,” Sudhakaran said in a statement.
On Saturday, posters against national general secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal were found at Sreekantapuram in Kannur which is his home turf. Social media messages tarnishing Venugopal started to appear soon after the announcement of results. Sensing danger, leaders close to Venugopal rallied behind him and posted pictures of him and Rahul Gandhi on their social media pages.
A top Congress leader told TNIE that Venugopal alone can’t be blamed for the poll failure as it was a collective leadership which led the elections. “It was after Venugopal took over organisational responsibility that people started noticing the role played by him,” said a top Congress leader.
Sudhakaran suggested that dissent voices should be raised only on party platforms. He is expected to reach the capital on Sunday evening and resume talks for organizational revamp and also to prepare a panel of names for Rajya Sabha election.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Chennithala who was silent on the poll setback over the last two days broke the silence on Saturday and termed the defeat ‘shocking’. He, however, said that Congress cannot be ruled out just because it lost the elections. He exuded confidence that the Congress will bounce back after introspecting the reasons for the poll failure.