Southern States - Kerala   

CM holds talks with AICC leaders

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI SEPT. 15 . The Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, who was in Kochi today to bolster the electioneering efforts, held talks with the AICC secretary, Anil Sastry, and the two AICC observers for the Ernakulam Lok Sabha by-poll, Veerappa Moily and G.K. Vasan.

Talking to media persons, Mr. Sastry said he had discussed electoral strategy with Mr. Antony. He denied that they had discussed anything about the senior leader, K. Karunakaran's activities. He would be going to Thiruvananthapuram tomorrow to meet Mr. Karunakaran. He denied that the meeting would be to thrash out a compromise between Mr. Karunakaran and Mr. Antony over the candidate selection. That was not part of his mission. ``There is no need for any mediation,'' he said.

He was here to help in the electioneering. He was not deputed by the AICC high command to try any compromise. Mr. Karunakaran and Mr. Antony were senior leaders and if there were any problems between the two, they would themselves sort it out.

Mr. Sastry said Mr. Antony was fully confident that the UDF candidate would win. So were all the Congress leaders. Asked about Mr. Karunakaran's reported hint to his cadres to vote for the `TV' (the LDF candidate's symbol), Mr. Sastry claimed he was not aware of it. He said Mr. Karunakaran was a pillar of the party and that it was because of his efforts too that the Congress was in power in Kerala. ``The party derives strength from Karunakarji,'' he said.

Asked if any disciplinary action would be taken against Mr. Karunakaran for his call to the party workers to vote for the LDF candidate, Mr. Sastry said: ``There is no indiscipline in the party.'' He had not received any complaints against Mr. Karunakaran either from the Chief Minister or any other party leaders.

He said he was quite satisfied with the electioneering and confident that all Congress workers would vote for the UDF candidate. ``Everything is fine with the party and the candidate will win with a big majority,'' he claimed.

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