Sarin to exit Congress, may be Left pick for Palakkad by-polls
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Unrest in the Congress over its Palakkad bypoll candidate is inching towards a flashpoint as KPCC digital media cell convener P Sarin, who unleashed a tirade against the party for its choice of candidate, is set to part ways with the Congress. In all likelihood, he will contest as a Left independent from the constituency.
The CPM has been waiting for Sarin to make his stance clear. There are indications that he will announce his decision to leave the Congress on Thursday. The Congress leadership, however, has decided not to take any disciplinary action against the dissident leader.
“So far, Sarin has not resigned from the party. Even if he leaves the Congress, he’s not at all keen to join the BJP camp. Both the Congress leadership and Sarin have adopted a wait-and-watch policy,” said sources close to Sarin.
In his outburst on Wednesday, Sarin trained his guns on Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan. Over the past few days, he has been seeking the support of senior Congress leaders including K C Venugopal, A K Antony, K Sudhakaran and Satheesan.
Though he expected help from Sudhakaran, his hopes were shattered when the party endorsed Rahul Mamkoottathil.
Senior party leaders later held hectic parleys with Sarin to dissuade him from holding the press meet, which he eventually did at the Palakkad Press Club. A source close to Sarin told TNIE that when he met Satheesan at the Cantonment House a few days ago, he was humiliated and asked to wait for hours.
“When Satheesan finally met Sarin late at night, he reprimanded him for being a ‘spoiler alert’. Satheesan told him that they (Satheesan and Shafi Parambil) had already taken a decision to field Rahul as the Palakkad candidate. More than the rejection, it was Satheesan’s attitude that hurt him the most,” said a source.
‘Satheesan never humiliated Sarin’
Satheesan’s office refuted the claim, saying that he was upset with Sarin for having first informed the media of their impending meeting. “Satheesan never humiliated Sarin. He was peeved at Sarin as he learnt of the meeting through a television channel scroll. On Wednesday, Satheesan listened to Sarin’s woes for 10 minutes, ahead of his press meet, and assured him that the party will protect him,” a source close to Satheesan said.
A senior Congress leader said both Sudhakaran and Satheesan were unanimous in zeroing in on Rahul and Ramya Haridas as the candidates in Palakkad and Chelakkara.
Sudhakaran and Satheesan will be in Chelakkara and Palakkad to convene the leadership meet on Thursday.
While all senior leaders including Antony, Sudhakaran, Chennithala and Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, besides Satheesan, have reprimanded Sarin for his public outburst against the leadership, the party adopted a wait and watch policy.
They knew that Dr Sarin could defect to the Left camp, but were not keen to give him a ‘martyr status’.