With Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien and former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president V.M. Sudheeran, besides some of the young turks, continuing their attack on the State party leadership, the Congress in Kerala continued to be rocked on Saturday by vociferous dissent and resentment over the decision to give the lone Rajya Sabha seat that the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) is certain of winning to the Kerala Congress (M).
Mr. Kurien, who had gone public with his anger and dismay at having been denied another term in the Upper House in New Delhi, went one step further on Saturday making a pointed attack on Congress general secretary Oommen Chandy, accusing him of having carried out his personal agenda with the help of the KC(M). Mr. Chandy, he said, had given the Rajya Sabha seat on a platter to the KC(M), which had never expected to get the seat. He said that Mr. Chandy had all along treated him with hostility and tried his best to harm him.
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala met Mr. Kurien at his residence in Pathanamthitta, apparently to mollify him. Mr. Kurien’s interaction with the media was noteworthy also for his silence about whatever role Mr. Chennithala had played in ‘gifting’ the Rajya Sabha seat to the KC(M). He told reporters that Mr. Chennithala had apologised to him for whatever had happened and said that he had not played any role in the decision to allot the Rajya Sabha seat to the KC(M).
In Thiruvananthapuram, Mr. Sudheeran termed the manner in which the Rajya Sabha seat decision was taken an ‘act of subversion,’ which also amounted to betrayal of the Congress workers in the State and the United Progressive Alliance at the national level. “The UPA has lost a seat in the Rajya Sabha. Is this the way to strengthen the Congress,” he asked.
Recalling the serious charges raised by KC(M) leader K.M. Mani against the Congress after the last Assembly elections, he demanded to know whether Mr. Mani still stuck to that stand. His criticism was intended only to reflect the anger that ordinary Congress workers felt, Mr. Sudheeran said.
Earlier, KPCC president M.M. Hassan said he hoped that the protest within the party would not go beyond reasonable limits.