The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : KC(Jacob) will merge with NC(I) soon, says Murali

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Friday, Jul 01, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

KC(Jacob) will merge with NC(I) soon, says Murali

Staff Reporter

NC(I) to contest polls under a front

KOCHI: National Congress (Indira) State president K. Muraleedharan has announced that the Kerala Congress(Jacob) will merge with his party soon.

Talking to presspersons after inaugurating the district committee office of the NC(I) at Queen's Building on Narakathara Road here on Thursday, Mr. Muraleedharan said a formal announcement in this regard would be made after the present discussions were over. The Kerala Congress (B) led by the former Minister R. Balakrishna Pillai and the A.V. Thamarakshan and Shibu Baby John factions of the Revolutionary Socialist party (RSP) have expressed their willingness to cooperate with the NC(I).

Mr. Muraleedharan said the NC(I) will contest the coming elections under a political front. Asked about the nature of the front, he said that it would be declared after further deliberations. The primary objective of the NC(I) in the coming local body and Assembly elections would be to defeat the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Talks are on at the national level for coordinating activities of the NC(I). Mr. Muraleedharan said the NC(I) would launch an agitation against mining of mineral sand, the proposed Smart City project, corruption in the Education Department and self-financing educational institutions, joining forces with Left parties. He demanded that the move to give sanction for mineral sand mining along the State's coast be stopped immediately. He warned that if the Government went ahead with the move, it would end up in police firing.

He said that he endorsed the stand taken by the former Speaker V.M. Sudheeran on the mineral sand mining issue. However, he criticised Mr. Sudheeran's stand on issues relating to the organisational election in the Congress.

Mr. Muraleedharan dismissed the new Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala's statement that his biggest challenges were combating the political campaigns of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the threat raised by the senior leader K. Karunakaran as meaningless. The coming polls will be a fight between the strong and the weak.

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