The Hindu : Karunakaran bid to prevent disunity in faction

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 14, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Karunakaran bid to prevent disunity in faction

By Girish Menon

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Feb. 13. The senior Congress leader, K. Karunakaran, today stepped in to prevent disunity in his faction, an outcome of the growing differences between the KPCC president, K Muraleedharan and the KPCC executive member, Padmaja Venugopal.

The veteran leader made it very clear at a meeting of his supporters that the group should stand united and function as a cohesive unit. Mr. Karunakaran, according to reliable sources, made it quite evident that he could not disown his son or daughter. "Both of them are in politics and this is a reality. But no statements should be made which would hurt Mr. Muraleedharan. I am the leader of the `I' group and no one need find a successor to it as yet,'' he reportedly said.

The factional meeting, held at Mr. Karunakaran's residence, evaluated the impact of the faction's decision to stay away from the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor's Address. The meeting deferred a decision on the next strategy to be adopted in the Assembly, though the MLAs would participate in the debate on the various bills slated to be taken up by the Assembly before the State Budget on March 14.

The second phase of the faction's strategy should be decided by that time. According to reliable sources, the differences between Mr. Muraleedharan and Ms. Padmaja did not figure at the meeting, though many of speakers such as the KPCC vice-president, P.P. Thankachan, were of the view that the faction should stand united.

Mr. Thankachan, in fact, reflected the dilemma of the Karunakaran supporters who have been caught between the growing differences between the brother and sister. These differences came out in separate television interviews the other day, with Ms. Padmaja Venugopal alleging that conscious attempts were being made by certain quarters in the party to put her down and the KPCC president stating that some people were trying to become leaders through short cut.

All MLAs owing allegiance to him attended the meeting, barring two and the three Ministers. Mr. Karunakaran's attempt to arrest disunity should be seen in the context of some of the political moves he has made in recent days and more moves he has in mind in the coming days. It is obvious that he cannot possibly afford a division in his ranks when he is decidedly pushing for either a Cabinet or even force a leadership change. The one major point he has been emphasizing all these months is the strong support he commands of 26 of his MLAs.

The differences between his son and daughter have cropped up over the exclusion of Ms. Padmaja's nominees in the list of Youth Congress office-bearers, announced by Mr. Muraleedharan.

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