THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after the appearance of posters demanding MPs, K Muraleedharan and K Sudhakaran be made the state Congress president, both leaders opened their minds on Sunday. While Muraleedharan expressed willingness to take up whatever responsibility the party entrusts him with, Sudhakaran termed the posters favouring him as a natural response of party workers.
Muraleedharan told reporters that a collective effort is required to brighten the prospects of the party. Though he evaded the question on leadership change, he said it is not the Muslim League that leads the UDF but the Congress, in response to the allegations of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
On the other hand, Sudhakaran said the workers have no other avenue to voice their opinions as the Congress does not hold democratic organisational elections within the party. Posters appeared in various parts of the state, including in front of the KPCC headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, demanding a leadership change.
However, reports have said the AICC would not dare to effect a leadership change immediately after the poll debacle but that the Congress committees in districts where the party performed poorly would be reconstituted.
Meanwhile, the District Congress Committee (DCC) reports on the election debacle said the welfare and development projects initiated by the state government helped the LDF script a thumping victory in the elections. The DCC reports also pointed out that Congress leaders' repeated press conferences depicted the party in poor light and many of the allegations raised by the party could not be proved before the public.
The next political affairs committee of the Congress, to be held on December 27, will discuss the reports and deliberate on the strategy to be adopted ahead of the assembly polls. AICC general secretary Tariq Anwar - in charge of Kerala - will reach the state on December 25.
The UDF has decided to hold the Raj Bhavan march, which was earlier scheduled on December 17 but cancelled following the drubbing in the LSG polls, on Tuesday in protest against the central government’s anti-farmer policies.
IUML has no role in Congress' internal affairs: Kunhalikutty
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the IUML was vying for supremacy in the UDF at the expense of internal bickering in the Congress, IUML general secretary P K Kunhalikutty, MP, said the chief minister’s remarks were baseless. The IUML has no role in the internal matters of the Congress. The Congress knows how to solve its internal issues, he told the media. The party has also decided to not make any public comment on the controversies related to the poll debacle.
IUML heading UDF: Union minister V Muraleedharan
KOZHIKODE: BJP senior leader and Union minister V Muraleedharan on Sunday said BJP had already said the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) was heading the UDF. The minister was responding to reporters on the sidelines of a public meeting conducted to honour BJP's elected members of local bodies in Kozhikode. Muraleedharan further said the people of Kerala have not given clean chit to the LDF-led state government. The CPM has come to retain power with the support of IUML and Congress.