P C Chacko named Nationalist Congress Party Kerala chief

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former Congress leader P C Chacko who had recently joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has been appointed as the president of the state unit of the party.
Chacko, who had quit the Congress after falling out with the party leadership, replaces T P Peethambaran as the state president of the NCP.
A section of NCP activists had been demanding the replacement of Peethambaran, and the national leadership of the NCP decided to appoint Chacko as the new president.
NCP national president Sharad Pawar’s decision to appoint him as the NCP state president was officially communicated to the local leadership by national general secretary of the party Praful Patel, on Wednesday.
Responding to the portfolio allocation for the NCP in the LDF ministry, Chacko said that the party is satisfied with the forests and wildlife portfolio as it is an important department.
The party was holding the transport portfolio in the last LDF ministry. He said that there would be no sharing of portfolio with the party’s second MLA and former NCP leader’s brother Thomas K Thomas, and A K Saseendran would be the minister for the full five-year term.
He said that there is no discussion going on regarding re-inducting Mani C Kappan back into the NCP. He added that Kappan had acted against the party’s line that NCP should continue in the LDF. Chacko said that in the coming days, more leaders from the Congress will join the NCP.
Chacko, who had been an MP multiple times on Congress ticket from the state, had left the party before the assembly elections citing that there is intense groupism in the party and all the assembly tickets were divided on the basis of groups.