More trouble for Congress in Vattiyoorkavu

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after state Congress president Mullappally Ramachandran announced a three-member party subcommittee to probe into the unused posters of Vattiyoorkavu Congress candidate Veena S Nair ending up in a scrap shop, now several pamphlets of her’s have been found lying abandoned at a plantain farm at Peroorkada. State Congress general secretary Johnson Abraham, who is heading the three-member subcommittee, will meet Mullappally on Tuesday at Indira Bhavan. 

When Veena had apprised Mullappally about the gravity of the situation on Sunday morning, it didn’t take him to think twice about appointing a subcommittee to probe into the intra party issue aimed at her defeat. Also, a plethora of voters in the constituency had raised the issue of the poor door-to-door campaigning for the Congress candidate. Apart from Johnson Abraham, the two State Congress secretaries L K Sreedevi and Satheesh Kochuparambil are the other members in the subcommittee. 

Johnson Abraham told TNIE that there has been dereliction of duty among a section of party workers which saw unused posters dumped at a scrap shop and the latest incident of pamphlets abandoned at an agricultural farm. “We will be meeting Mullappally at Indira Bhavan on Tuesday at 11 am where the terms of reference will be finalised. Accordingly, we will begin our probe into the poster issue at Vattiyoorkavu which saw 50 kilograms of unused posters sold at a scrap shop and also the abandoned posters”, said Johnson Abraham. 

Veena’s candidature from Vattiyoorkavu was announced at the fag end, despite her name being included in the list of probable candidates. Several seat aspirants had fought for the Vattiyoorkavu ticket, but to no avail. Following former Mahila Congress state president Lathika Subhash’s tonsure incident, the central Congress leadership was firm in their stand that a woman candidate should be fielded from the A plus constituency of Vattiyoorkavu. This cast huge disappointment among seat aspirants who had initially not rendered full support to Veena. 

This was one of the reasons why Mullappally had cast aspersions against the local Congress leadership. Now the Johnson Abraham committee will probe into whether any local Congress leaders had thwarted Veena’s prospects in Vattiyoorkavu constituency, by bringing down the campaign. A day after the incident, the local Congress leadership had taken disciplinary action against Kuravankonam mandalam committee treasurer V Balu after he has found to be guilty.