The Hindu : `I' group to put pressure on high command

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 18, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

`I' group to put pressure on high command

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 17. The Karunakaran faction today decided to put pressure on the Congress high command to concede its demand for eight seats in the Lok Sabha elections.

The veteran leader, K. Karunakaran, announced his resolve to wrest the seats his group was entitled to when MLAs and other supporters called on him in the evening. In view of the fact that unity had been restored in the party, Mr. Karunakaran decided to end factional meetings for the time being. At the same time, he made it clear that he proposed to call the shots as far as the interests of his faction were concerned.

According to the faction leaders who participated in today's meeting, Mr. Karunakaran said his son, K. Muraleedharan, had been inducted as a Minister in the Antony Cabinet as part of the party tradition of accommodating outgoing PCC presidents and that he was not in it as a nominee of the `I' group. He said that he had not abandoned his demand for a leadership change in the CLP. Since a very crucial election was round the corner, he had decided to play it down. Rajmohan Unnithan, the faction's spokesman, denied that the meeting had discussed the question of the number of seats the Karunakaran group would contest. The issue of P. C. Chacko was also not a point of discussion. He said that Mr. Karunakaran was the leader of the faction and those who refused to fall in line with his wishes would no longer be part of it. He denied allegations of the faction's detractors that there were differences of opinion between Mr. Karunakaran and Mr. Muraleedharan.

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