Kerala   

Give Karunakaran free hand to choose KPCC chief: Murali

KOLLAM, JAN. 11. The KPCC president, K. Muraleedharan, has said that he considers his present position more important than a ministerial berth and hence any compromise formula by asking him to quit can be worked out only if the senior party leader, K. Karunakaran, is given the carte blanche to decide who will be the next KPCC president.

Talking to presspersons here today, where he arrived to inaugurate the 4th State conference of the Kerala Public Sector Officers Congress (KPSOC), Mr. Muraleedharan said the next KPCC president should also be a person who had stood by Indira Gandhi at the time of the 1978 split in the party. He said he did not feel that the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, is all that sincere in settling the issues within the KPCC.

The KPCC president said that removing Mr. Antony from the Chief Ministership is still an option before the party high command for settling the issue. In his opinion, unless the demand for a leadership change is recognised, the Congress will face difficulties in the State vis-a-vis the coming Lok Sabha elections.

If the high command called Mr. Karunakaran directly for talks, the whole issue could be settled within minutes. But that stand is not being taken. ``Perhaps Mr. Karunakaran has the disqualification that he did not join other parties and then return to the Congress,'' he said. He wanted the high command to first take a strong decision and then call the leaders and inform about the decision taken. Simply summoning the leaders to Delhi for talks would not serve any purpose, he said.

Mr. Muraleedharan welcomed the talks between the State president of the Indian Union Muslim League, Panakkad Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal, and Mr. Antony. However, the Chief Minister should first apologise for his (Antony's) statements which had hurt minority sentiments. ``After all, Mr. Antony is one who often apologises, hence why should be hesitate on this issue,'' the KPCC president asked.

On the recommendations of the Justice Narendran Commission report, Mr. Muraleedharan said the issue should be settled by inviting the representatives of the NSS and the SNDP for talks. On his part, he is prepared to convene a KPCC executive for the purpose. He wanted to know if the UDF convener, Oommen Chandy, is prepared to call the UDF liaison committee for the same purpose.

The DCC president, Sooranad Rajashekaran, was also present at the press conference.

Later, while inaugurating the KPSOC conference, he said the Congress should revive the economic policies of the Nehru era. While the economic policies of Rajiv Gandhi were good initially, it went awry later.

He said that when it comes to protecting the public sector undertakings, the policies of the UDF Government and the BJP-led Government at the Centre were the same. This could be clearly seen in the FACT issue, he said.

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