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K.V. Thomas meets Cong. panel chief

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 16. Apprehensive of the Congress Central leadership getting a distorted picture of the stalemate within the Kerala unit of the party, the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony's supporters are trickling into the napital to present their version and ``set the record straight''. Today, it was the turn of the Tourism Minister and new member of the Antony faction, K.V. Thomas, to brief the leadership.

Prof. Thomas separately met L.P. Shahi and R.K. Dhawan, two members of the three-member panel set up by All India Congress Committee to look into charges of anti-party activities during the Ernakulam by-poll, and the party in-charge of Kerala, Ahmed Patel. At all these meetings, Prof. Thomas is sought to have impressed upon the leadership that the party had always accommodated the senior leader, K. Karunakaran's views.

Since parallels are being drawn between the current situation and what had prevailed in 1995 when Mr. Karunakaran was replaced by Mr. Antony as Chief Minister, Prof. Thomas' contention apparently is that there is no comparison. According to him, Mr. Karunakaran did not have a majority in the Congress Legislature Party and also did not enjoy the confidence of the allies then. The `A' group position is that Mr. Antony enjoys both at present.

Also, the Antony group is of the view that the Karunakaran faction should not be allowed to get away with indiscipline as was the case after the Rajya Sabha elections when the `I' group had fielded a candidate of its own against the party's official candidate.

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