THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after he was made the opposition leader, V D Satheesan has reached out to senior leaders to garner their support. Satheesan’s first meeting was with K C Venugopal, the AICC general secretary in-charge of the party, in Thiruvananthapuram.
Satheesan tweeted that he discussed the current political scenario, and “thanked him for his support in choosing me as the LoP, Kerala”.
Venugopal said Satheesan is an able organiser and would strengthen the party in the state. Satheesan, a fifth-term MLA from Paravur, later visited KPCC President Mullappally Ramachandran at Indira Bhavan, the KPCC headquarters in the capital. Later he met former KPCC president V M Sudheeran, who said he was confident that Satheesan can guide the party keeping aside the group interests, a curse for the Congress for long in the state.
“During K Karunakaran’s time, the ‘groupism’ was not destructive as is the case now. Several able people were sidelined based on the interest of the group managers. The party is currently facing the issues because of the extreme groupism,” he added. Satheesan also met former chief minister Ommen Chandy on the day.
Chandy said corrections in working of the UDF will be made under Satheesan and hoped that the front will grow in strength under his leadership. Chandy added that the appointment of Satheesan has been accepted by all the leaders and felt that he could take along all the coalition partners together, he said to the media after Satheeshan called on him in Thiruvananthapuram.Satheesan said he the election debacle has eroded confidence of the party workers and he will take measures to restore it. “We will go ahead with our plans with the help of the senior leaders and the youths belonging to the second and third generation,” Satheesan said.
Satheesan added that on the basis of the allegations raised by the opposition, the government had revoked several of its decisions.
“In the remaining matters also, we will correct the government,” he said.Opposition leader will meet his predecessor Ramesh Chennithala on Monday morning. “He could not meet Chennithala as he’s, who was not in the capital. “He will visit Chennithala when he’s back in the city,” said party sources.
Chennithala, meanwhile, offered Satheesan his full support to guide the organization through the challenging times. Speaking to reporters in Haripad, he expressed satisfaction over his work as Opposition Leader and said he was able to expose the corruptions committed by the government.Satheesan also met UDF convenor M M Hassan and former KPCC chief Thennala Balakrishnan. He also paid a visit to late Congress leader G Karthikeyan’s residence.
Outlining his plans, Satheesan said Congress will pivot its activities on Nehruvian socialism for its re-emergence and won’t yield to the influences of the religious outfits. In a Facebook post, Satheesan wrote that the immediate priority will be to decimate the politics of hatred and communalism.
“The first priority of the UDF will be to bury that politics through ideological battle. Our battle should be against both the majority and minority communalism,” he said. Hinting that the organisation would work on enhancing its youth appeal, Satheesan said the opposition should function by addressing the new generation and the new-fashioned politics.