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AICC invites IUML leaders for talks

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM July 13. The AICC has invited the IUML leadership to Delhi for talks on July 16 in an apparent bid to sort out the differences it harbours about the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony's statement.

The party leadership has deputed its all-India general secretary, E. Ahmed, and the legislature party leader and Industry Minister, P.K. Kunhalikutty, for the dialogues. Mr. Kunhalikutty has already left for Delhi to attend to Government business related to the Information Technology Department. Mr. Ahmed is expected to be in Delhi by July 15, after attending a few functions in the State capital, including a deposition before the Constituency Delimitation Commission which is holding its sitting here.

The AICC invitation was extended by the party general secretary, Ahmed Patel, who has been in touch with the IUML leadership ever since it took the extraordinary step of disputing Mr. Antony's observations on the equations between the majority and minority communities. The invitation follows clear messages sent by the IUML leadership meeting in Malappuram that disrupting Mr. Antony was not on their agenda.

The Malappuram meeting, attended by senior party leaders, including its Ministers, authorised Mr. Ahmed and Mr. Kunhalikutty to hold discussions with the UDF partners and submit a report to its State secretariat meeting on July 21. What emerged from the meeting was the IUML's discomfiture at the Government's failure to address the issue of rehabilitating the victims of Marad violence. The Government, it was stated at the meeting, had failed to provide relief or even free rations to the affected families, which were experiencing a horrid time.

The meeting was also sore about the fact that the Chief Minister did not come forward to criticise the VHP leader, Praveen Togadia, who made some inflammatory speeches during his sojourn in the State.

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