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Antony holds discussions with UDF leaders

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM April 11. The Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, and the UDF convener, Oommen Chandy, today held discussions with the leaders of UDF constituents, particularly the Kerala Congress(B), Kerala Congress (Jacob), and the RSP (B) in the run up towards hotly contested Rajya Sabha elections.

A spokesman of the Antony faction said here today that the leaders of the three parties had assured the UDF convener that they would back the official candidates. However, it was later clarified by the spokesmen of the three parties that the position of their respective parties would be finalised only by their State committee meetings scheduled to be held on Sunday.

The leaders of the three parties are expected to meet the AICC observer, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and perhaps make an earnest plea to sort out the deadlock. The Antony group spokesman said that a majority of the Karunakaran MLAs had contacted the Chief Minister and firmly affirmed their resolve not to take any step which might lead to splitting the party.

The spokesman said that the rebel candidate, Kodoth Govindan Nair, would get at best 17-18 votes.

He said that the AICC observers, Ghulam Nabi Azad and R.K. Dhavan, had been deputed to the State purely for the Rajya Sabha elections and implement the high command's decision.

He taunted the KPCC president, K. Muraleedharan, for his statement that his father, K. Karunakaran, was insulted by the party high command.

He said that Mr. Muraleedharan himself had insulted his father by proposing the name of P.C. Chacko, whom Mr. Karunakaran had termed as a `cheat' after the former failed to submit his nominations for the Congress Working Committee elections at the Calcutta AICC session.

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, had nominated Thennala Balakrishna Pillai in view of the dispute between Mr. Muraleedharan and Mr. Karunakaran, he added.

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