Muraleedharan to approach Congress chief over ‘repeated humiliations’

Says Sudhakaran deliberately sidelined him at Vaikom Satyagraha centenary celebrations
Congress leader K Muraleedharan | Express
Congress leader K Muraleedharan | Express

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The open hostility between Congress state president K Sudhakaran and senior party MP K Muraleedharan has gone up a notch. The KPCC’s Vaikom Satyagraha centenary celebrations, held on Thursday, have opened another can of worms for Sudhakaran, with Muraleedharan alleging that he was “deliberately” sidelined at the event.

A peeved Muraleedharan has decided to approach AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge against what he termed as repeated instances of humiliation at the hands of Sudhakaran.

It was just four weeks ago that Sudhakaran first took up the cudgels against Muraleedharan and Kozhikode MP M K Raghavan. He issued a notice to the pair for their criticism of the state leadership. The discord saw K C Venugopal, national general secretary (organisation), calling all the MPs, including Sudhakaran, who is also the Kannur MP, for a meeting at his home in Delhi.

While the differences of opinion were resolved, the Vaikom event presented fresh complications for Sudhakaran. Vadakara MP Muraleedharan told TNIE that he was sidelined at the event, inaugurated by Kharge, where he was not invited to address the gathering.

“When state Congress vice-president V P Sajeendran forgot to welcome me at the event, Sudhakaran’s close confidant K Jayanth reminded him about the omission. While leaders, including Sudhakaran, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, Venugopal, national general secretary in-charge of the state Tariq Anwar, UDF convenor M M Hassan and senior leader Ramesh Chennithala spoke, I was not invited to deliver my speech. I expressed my strong displeasure to Venugopal for the humiliation,” said Muraleedharan.

Venugopal brought the lapse to the attention of Sudhakaran, who apologised to Muraleedharan on the dais itself. But the latter was in no mood to relent. “I told Venugopal that if my services were no longer required by the party, I may as well stop singing while I can still carry a tune,” a fuming Muraleedharan told TNIE.
Another senior leader K C Joseph read out Rahul Gandhi’s message for the year-long event. 

“My name was also avoided from the advertisement issued by party mouthpiece Veekshanam. What’s the point of Sudhakaran’s repeated apologies? I have decided to take up the issue with the Congress president,” said Muraleedharan.

A Sudhakaran loyalist rubbished Muraleedharan’s allegations claiming that it was not deliberate. Shashi Tharoor and other parliamentarians from the state were provided seating in the second row at the Vaikom event.  Tharoor was late to the event, but he dragged his chair to the front row and sat through the programme, a source close to the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.

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