Sunday, Nov 23, 2003
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Kerala
By Our Special Correspondent
Addressing a press conference here today, Mr. Mohammed said that if Mr. Karunakaran had the numbers he claimed, the first thing he should be doing was to approach the Governor with his list. He admitted that Mr. Karunakaran had been able to prove that he had 21 MLAs with him at his November 19 rally. But Mr. Karunakaran would not be able to retain more than 11 MLAs if he were to force a split in the party, he said. Mr. Mohammed said that Mr. Karunakaran had been losing his MLA supporters one by one. At the time of the Rajya Sabha election in April, he had 26 MLAs. This had come down to 23 after the election and now was 21, he said. "I am confident that many of his MLAs will not stick to him in the event of a split in the party,'' he added. Mr. Mohammed wanted the LDF to clarify whether the support it had promised to Mr. Karunakaran was conditional or unconditional. He said that Mr. Antony continued to enjoy the support of the majority in the Assembly and none of the UDF constituents had demanded a change of leadership. In reply to a question on the continuation of two Ministers belonging to the `I' group in the Cabinet, Mr. Mohammed said that democratic propriety demanded that they submit their resignation. Mr. Mohammed said that the Kochi rally was impressive, but Mr. Karunakaran would not be able to mobilise one fourth of the crowd in the event of a split. The onus was on Mr. Karunakaran to give a split-up of the MLAs he claimed were with him. Mr. Karunakaran was such an astute politician that he could easily mislead the CPI(M) into believing that he had the numbers, he said. Reacting to the Leader of the Opposition, V. S. Achuthanandan's statement that he did not disbelieve Mr. Karunakaran's numbers, Mr. Mohammed wanted to know the rationale behind such a belief. He wanted to know whether Mr. Achuthanandan, who had been pursuing the palmolein case against Mr. Karunakaran, would accept Mr. Karunakaran's pleading that he was innocent. Mr. Achuthanandan should make it clear whether he would withdraw the cases against Mr. Karunakaran, Mr. Mohammed said. He said that the Congress would not split and that Mr. Karunakaran knew very well that he would be lost in political wilderness if he did eventually force a split.
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