The Hindu : Kerala News : Kunhalikutty offers to quit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 29, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Kunhalikutty offers to quit

By Our Special Correspondent

KOZHIKODE, DEC. 28. The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader and Industries Minister, P.K. Kunhalikutty, who is allegedly involved in the Kozhikode ice-cream sex scandal, today sought his party's permission to resign from the Oommen Chandy Cabinet.

The offer was made in a letter to the party State president, Panakkad Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal. Mr. Thangal told presspersons at his residence in Malappuram that he had received the letter from Mr. Kunhalikutty seeking the party leadership's permission to resign from the Cabinet.

Mr. Kunhalikutty's request will be placed before the party State committee, which will meet in Kozhikode on January 1.

Party insiders said that it was too early to predict the response of the State committee. In response to demands for Mr. Kunhalikutty's resignation, the IUML top leadership had reiterated it was for Mr. Thangal to take an appropriate decision on the issue. Mr. Kunhalikutty had also declared earlier that he would quit if Mr. Thangal asked him to do so.

The IUML top leadership had stood solidly behind him and declared there was no need for him to resign as Minister. This was a refrain heard ever since demands for his resignation were made by the Opposition in the wake of the new disclosures made by Rejina, prime witness in the ice-cream parlour case, about two months ago. A section in the Congress too had come out openly against Mr. Kunhalikutty's continuance in the Cabinet.

Mr. Kunhalikutty, in his letter, appealed to his party leader to allow him to relinquish his ministerial responsibilities. He was finding it tough to function both as a Minister as well as the IUML State general secretary, the letter said. As he was a Minister he was being portrayed as a communalist even when he prayed to Allah at party conventions organised by cadres to declare support to him. All this was because he was holding a public post. So he was seeking permission to relinquish the Minister's post.

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