THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : Congress state general secretary Pazhakulam Madhu has stepped out of the inquiry committee constituted by party state president K Sudhakaran to probe the drunken brawl on Saturday at the KSU southern regional study camp at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Development Studies (RGIDS) at Neyyar Dam. Sudhakaran had formed a three-member committee comprising Madhu, KPCC general secretary M M Nazeer, and Dalit Congress president and one of the directors of RGIDS A K Sasi.
A party source told TNIE that Madhu felt it would be unethical to be part of the panel of which one of the members is his close friend. It is learnt that Madhu informed Sudhakaran of his inconvenience of being a part of the ‘fact finding mission’ as he and Nazeer owe allegiance to AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal.
“Both Madhu and Nazeer are close friends. Madhu felt that it would convey the wrong message, and there are chances of leaders coming out with a claim that they were hand in glove in finalising the comprehensive report on the KSU clash. Hence, Madhu informed Sudhakaran of his inconvenience of being a part of the inquiry committee,” said the party source.
Even as the NSUI leadership suspended four KSU leaders who allegedly triggered the clash, the inquiry committee constituted by the party president is fiddling with the comprehensive report on what led to the alleged drunken brawl and who all were involved in it. There is also widespread displeasure over the suspension of the KSU leaders, citing that it was a unilateral move. Meanwhile, KSU also ordered an internal investigation on Tuesday.
The clash occurred mainly because of a dispute between two groups of KSU leaders from Ernakulam and Kottayam over adding their colleagues in their WhatsApp group, which saw a third group from Thiruvananthapuram district intervene.
Meanwhile, the two-member inquiry committee is awaiting the explanation from the KSU members who were involved in the clash, which has caused a delay in submitting the report before Sudhakaran. In all likelihood, it will be submitted to him on Wednesday, which will then be forwarded to the AICC leadership.