Amidst growing discontent inside Congress party, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) today downplayed the protest among party workers over its decision to forgo a Rajya Sabha seat in favour of the Kerala Congress (M), which returned to the UDF coalition after a gap of two years.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, KPCC president M M Hassan said the protest over the decision was natural in a democratic party, but cautioned that it should not cross limits.He said the party leadership also understood the workers’ sentiments and their pain over the decision.
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“We are also pained by the decision… but it was taken with a view to strengthen the party-led UDF and democratic forces to take on the BJP and the LDF in the state,” Hassan said.
The Congress party would issue a whip asking its MLAs to vote for Jose K Mani, the RS candidate of the K M Mani-led KC(M). However, the KPCC chief admitted that the KC(M) insisted on the seat as a condition for its re-entry into the UDF fold.
Meanwhile, rumblings in the party over the RS seat issue continued with former KPCC president V M Sudheeran saying that party workers felt that they were being cheated.The senior leader also alleged that the decision lacked transparency.
The seat is currently held by Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P J Kurian of the Congress, who is set to retire on July 1. Two young Congress MLAs, V T Balaram and K S Sabarinathan, who were among those who asked AICC chief Rahul Gandhi to reconsider the decision, expressed their displeasure again.
Balaram, in a Facebook post, called for a leadership change in the party and said people with vision and those who understood the pulse of the grassroot-level workers were the need of the hour. The decision to field Jose Mani, son of K M Mani, as the candidate was taken at a KC(M) meeting held last night in Pala, near Kottayam, hours after the party rejoined the UDF.
Jose K Mani is currently the party’s lone member in the Lok Sabha from the Kottayam parliamentary constituency
source: PTI
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