NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India on Wednesday approved the registration of the newly-floated party of the breakaway Karunakaran faction of the Congress in Kerala as `Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran).'

A decision to this effect was taken after two rounds of meetings during the day between the full commission and the party's representative T. M. Jacob in the wake of fresh objections raised by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to the use of the words `Indira Congress' suggested by the group.

Briefing mediapersons soon after securing the registration, Mr. Jacob described it as a major victory for the fledgling party as ``K. Karunakaran is the only man in Kerala who can rightfully claim to be an Indira Gandhi loyalist. Ours is the actual `Indira Congress,' not A. K. Antony's Congress and not Oommen Congress.''

Earlier in the day, Mr. Jacob met the full commission twice after the AICC on Monday submitted fresh objections to the use of the word `Indira Congress' by this group which split from the party on May 1 this year. Since May 26 - when the first application was filed for registration - the Karunakaran group had suggested three names in writing: National Congress (Indira), Indira Congress and Indira Congress (Democratic).

The AICC contention was that the Indian National Congress (INC) alone could use the name of Indira Gandhi. However, according to Mr. Jacob, the fact was that the INC had also stopped using the word `Indira' and there were a number of parties among the list of 702 registered unrecognised parties using the words `Indira Congress.'

Further, he said, the Supreme Court in an earlier judgment had settled the issue by stating that no one organisation could claim exclusive rights to the name of Indira Gandhi.

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