Monday, Nov 17, 2003
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Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram
By Our Special Correspondent
A decision to this effect was taken after the IUML general secretary, E. Ahmed, held a round of discussions personally and on telephone with the leaders of the various UDF parties. The decision to wait till the first week of December was taken ostensibly because of the high command's request for time on account of its preoccupation with the December 1 Assembly elections in Rajasthan, New Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. However, the Karunakaran faction summarily rejected the UDF constituents' decision. A senior spokesman of the group said that the faction would accept the proposal to wait for more time only if the Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi were to speak to the veteran leader, K Karunakaran. Mr. Ahmed later told mediapersons that the high command's request for time was reasonable given the fact that the party was involved in a major election process. . Mr. Ahmed held two rounds of discussions with the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, on November 8 and on Saturday. He also met other Congress leaders such as Manmohan Singh, Arjun Singh, and the AICC general secretary, Ahmed Patel, who is in charge of Kerala, before arriving at a fair assessment of the political situation. Mr. Ahmed, who was deputed by the UDF constituents to brief the high command of the political uncertainty in the State, flew in this afternoon and held closed-door discussions with the JSS leader and Agriculture Minister, K. R. Gowri, on the high command's views. The UDF partners had met here on November 7 under Ms. Gowri's leadership, in the face of the apprehension of a possible split in the Congress. Mr. Ahmed was deputed to convey the UDF partners' demand for immediate intervention to solve the impasse. Mr. Ahmed said he had spoken to the other UDF leaders, including the Kerala Congress (M) leader, K. M. Mani, the CMP leader, M. V. Raghavan, the RSP(B) leader and Labour Minister, Babu Divakaran, and the Kerala Congress (B) leader, R. Balakrishna Pillai and informed them of the situation. He also met the Kerala Congress(Jacob) leader later in the evening. Mr. Ahmed spoke to the IUML supremo, Panakkad Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal, who shared the view that the high command's request for more time to tackle Kerala issues was reasonable. Mr. Ahmed later left for Kochi on way to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. He is scheduled to visit Mecca before returning home after Id. Asked whether the November 19 rally would be withdrawn, Mr. Ahmed said that the rally was an organisational issue of the Congress and he would rather not comment on it. He, however, expressed confidence that the Congress in the State would not split. Mr. Karunakaran continued to maintain his recalcitrant positions. Addressing a group of mediapersons, he said that there was no scope for any settlement in the Congress unless the leadership issue was decided. "Let the leadership issue be decided, then we shall talk about a settlement,'' he said. However, he made it clear that the November 19 rally would not come out with hard decisions. "We have taken some decisions (on the leadership issue). We know when to implement them and would not hesitate to do so. Then, all the doubts regarding numbers would be cleared,'' he said.
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