THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A week after the Lok Sabha election in the state, three Congress candidates came down heavily on the party machinery for lapses in campaigning. Senior leaders K Muraleedharan, M K Raghavan and Adoor Prakash, who contested from Thrissur, Kozhikode and Attingal, respectively, expressed their resentment at the party’s election review meeting on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the leadership, which was once confident of making a clean sweep, observed that the contest was tough in constituencies like Attingal, Thrissur and Palakkad. The review meeting saw Muraleedharan and Raghavan criticising their party colleagues.
According to party sources, Muraleedharan was particularly critical of Thrissur DCC president Jose Valoor and former MP T N Prathapan for their “lack of wholehearted support”. The duo was caught off guard when Muraleedharan pointed at the skyrocketing election campaign expenses. His remark that “certain leaders’ greed for money was really shocking” created a stir among those present.
Muraleedharan’s sister Padmaja Venugopal, who recently joined the BJP, had also cast similar aspersions against the same two leaders and former MLA M P Vincent before the Lok Sabha election.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Muraleedharan, however, denied raising the issue.
While Muraleedharan named names, Raghavan claimed that a legislator from Wayanad and his loyalists stayed away from actively campaigning for him. He, however, did not name the legislator.
Adoor Prakash, meanwhile, highlighted organisational lapses in the poll campaigning in Attingal, which saw an intense three-cornered fight.
Cong exudes confidence of winning 20 seats
Adoor Prakash said while court intervention helped address the issue of around 1.65 lakh double votes, there was no such intervention from within the party. “Prakash did not hide his disappointment when he reported that no Congress agent was present at some polling booths. He is still confident of defending the seat. But he maintained that the previous victory margin of 38,247 is unattainable,” said a party source.
The party observed that there was a tough fight in some seats. However, the leadership is confident of attaining the magic figure of 20 seats against all odds. However, most sitting MPs who attended the meeting felt that they will not be able to better their existing victory margin.
Meanwhile, Congress state president in-charge M M Hassan informed that the party has decided to hold a protest meeting at Vadakara on May 11 against the CPM’s alleged hate campaign against UDF candidate Shafi Parambil. He recalled a fake video which was extensively used against Shafi by the CPM camp.