The Hindu : Kerala News : New party will have no impact, says Chandy

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Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

New party will have no impact, says Chandy

Staff Reporter

Only a few leaders with Karunakaran

ALAPPUZHA: The National Congress (Indira) formed by K. Karunakaran will have no impact on the United Democratic Front (UDF) Government or in the State politics, the Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy, has said.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Mr. Chandy said that only a few office-bearers of the Congress participated in the convention organised by Mr. Karunakaran in Thrissur on May 1. The new party had no ideology or programme, he said. The National Congress (Indira) was born because of the stubborn attitude of a handful of people, he said.

On the reported statement of Mr. Karunakaran that the newly appointed Thiruvananthapuram DCC president, K. Mohankumar, MLA, would be taught a lesson, Mr. Chandy said the culture of threat was alien to the Congress. The Congress culture was to attract others by convincing them about issues in a democratic way, Mr. Chandy said.

On the reports that several Congress MLAs were with the newly formed party, the Chief Minister said that such claims were made earlier too but it had come to naught. Mr. Chandy said group and new party were different things. Many people worked actively in `I' group earlier, but a new party was a totally different issue, he said.

On the question of the possibility of taking disciplinary action against Mr. Karunakaran, Mr. Chandy said it was for Mr. Karunakaran to decide whether he should continue in the party or not. He said it was for the Congress high command to take any action on the issue.

He said if the statement of National Congress leaders that they still approved the leadership of Sonia Gandhi was sincere, they should obey the Congress high command.

On Narendran Commission report, Mr. Chandy said the Government was holding discussions with various groups. He said that the discussion on the report held in the Assembly recently was done in a dignified manner.

Reacting to the statement of the Leader of the Opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan, that the State exchequer will lose Rs. 5,400 cores if the Government promulgated an Ordinance to exempt traders from scrutiny of their accounts, the Chief Minister said the Government would not take any step that would result in loss to the exchequer.

He said the income of the State Government from sales tax in April this year has increased.

On the complaints raised against the delimitation of constituencies in the State, Mr. Chandy said all political parties in the State had raised objection to the manner in which delimitation was carried out.

The State Government could not do much on the issue. Political parties in the State should think about submitting a joint memorandum to the Union Government on the issue, he said.

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