THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The ‘A’ group has raised objection to the state Congress leadership initiating steps to bring back former Alathur MLA and Palakkad party veteran AV Gopinath back to the party fold. They are peeved with him for lauding Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and saying that he would take it as pride to be the latter’s domestic servant.
This is happening when the high command has given the go-ahead to Congress state president K Sudhakaran to settle Gopinath issue. On Monday, when Gopinath announced his resignation, he was all praise for Pinarayi addressing him as a leader of great legacy. This had not gone down well with a cross section of the ‘A’ group leadership.
In the initial phase of his political career, Gopinath was attached to the ‘A’ group. Later, he parted ways and joined the K Karunakaran camp who was instrumental in giving the ticket to contest from Alathur assembly seatin 1991. A senior Congress leader told TNIE that the ‘A’ group has not liked Sudhakaran taking the initiative to placate Gopinath.
“Oommen Chandy recalled how Sudhakaran had not kept his promise to give the Palakkad district president post to Gopinath. Now, the group leaders are keen to project that the party is in a mess when Sudhakaran”, said a senior leader.
On his arrival from New Delhi on Tuesday, Sudhakaran had commented that Gopinath’s resignation is not a closed chapter. The group leaders and their managers were caught unawares by this statement.
‘Gopinath praising CM doesn’t augur well’
MP K Muraleedharan told TNIE that at a time when a majority of the CPM leaders themselves feel that Pinarayi is behaving like an autocrat, Gopinath eulogising him does not augur well. “Several Congress leaders including me have rendered support to Sudhakaran to bring back Gopinath. I too feel that Gopinath’s statement praising Pinarayi could have been avoided,” he said.