KOTTAYAM: Close on the heels of UDF convener Adoor Prakash making a public outburst over the lack of coordination between the government and the coalition, the Kerala Congress (Joseph) has also voiced its displeasure over the delay in granting a deserving cabinet-rank position to its senior leader P J Joseph.
Though the party has refrained from making the issue a public flashpoint within the coalition, party sources said executive chairman and minister Mons Joseph would soon meet Chief Minister V D Satheesan to reiterate the demand. The party maintains that there was an understanding within the ruling front to accommodate P J Joseph in a cabinet-rank position.
“The party is particularly aggrieved that its senior leader is being sidelined even as cabinet-rank positions have been allotted to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Forward Bloc, which did not contest a single seat in the assembly election, within the UDF government,” said a senior KC leader.
The leaders said the UDF leadership had assured P J Joseph a key cabinet-rank position when he stepped aside from contesting the previous assembly elections.
The party has been seeking one of the chairperson posts of the Administrative Reforms Commission, the Commission for the Elderly, or the Agricultural Debt Relief Commission.
At present, Mons Joseph and Government Chief Whip Apu John Joseph, son of P J Joseph, are the two Kerala Congress representatives holding cabinet rank. The recent Cabinet meeting decided to appoint M K Muneer as chairman of the Administrative Reforms Commission and G Devarajan as Special Representative in Delhi. The absence of a decision on a position for Joseph has added to the discontent within the Kerala Congress.
Speaking to mediapersons in Kottayam on Friday, Mons said P J Joseph, a frontline senior leader of the coalition and the first convener of the UDF, should be given a deserving position in the government.