Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

NCP not to return to Congress

NCP State president K. Muraleedharan says the party will adopt an independent line.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) State president K. Muraleedharan said here on Saturday that neither he nor his party workers was prepared to return to the Congress. “It is not in our agenda,” the State president told the media.

Asked about the comments of senior leader K. Karunakaran expressing willingness to return to the Congress, Mr. Muraleedharan said Mr. Karunakaran would not return to the Congress as he was a leader who abided by the feelings of his supporters. “If he goes, I won’t be with him.”

The national leadership of the Congress had humiliated Mr. Karunakaran and his supporters by denying him even an audience with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he said.

Mr. Muraleedharan said the NCP would adopt a political line independent of the two fronts in the State. Future alliances would be decided by party president Sharad Pawar at the national level and the State unit would go with him, he said.

He said the party recognised Sonia Gandhi only as chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance. She was not above criticism. However, the NCP was being courteous as it was part of the Alliance.

Condemning the killing of an assistant sub-inspector in a campus clash at Changanassery, Mr. Muraleedharan demanded that a judicial probe be ordered into the incident. Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan and Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan were making one-sided statements on the incident, he said.

He said the government was a failure on all fronts, including repair of roads and maintenance of law and order. The NCP will conduct workshops for its members in local bodies in Kochi and Kozhikode on December 15 and 16 respectively.

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