THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The decision to remove Malappuram leader Shaji Kaliyath from the membership of the KPCC is being construed as the party’s reaction to his signing the nomination papers of Shashi Tharoor, when he contested the Congress presidential election. Shaji was the lone Congress leader to lend support to Tharoor from the northern district. A peeved Tharoor is expected to take up the issue with the state leadership.
Interestingly, Shaji has not received a letter written by state Congress general secretary (organisation) T U Radhakrishnan on Friday which says that his association with his driver, who is allegedly close to the CPM, will affect the party’s prospects. Shaji’s associates in the Congress circles forwarded the letter, being circulated on social media, which adds that his KPCC membership is being withdrawn due to his rebel activities.
Shaji had contested the 2020 local-body election from Maranchery division as a rebel candidate after the then district party chief V V Prakash denied him a Congress ticket. Shaji, 48, told TNIE that he managed to poll 8,500 votes behind the CPM candidate P Subair’s 21,000 and the 18, 000 garnered by Congress’s P Anish.
“The late Prakash had issued a letter saying that I’m being temporarily removed as a KPCC member. I was taken back to the party fold when the election to the Ponnani Urban Co-operative Bank, of which I was the vice-chairman, was held. Ahead of the AICC chief’s election, Tharoor sought my support and I obliged. Now the decision to exclude me from the KPCC has been taken by a senior legislator from Malappuram with the connivance of the local leadership,” Shaji said. However, Malappuram DCC chief V S Joy told TNIE that the decision on Shaji’s KPCC membership has nothing to do with his backing of Tharoor.