Kannan refutes charges of anti-party activities

Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member P. Kannan has denied having indulged in any anti-party activity during the Lok Sabha elections, as alleged in a show-cause notice which the party served on him.

Last week, All India Congress Committee general secretary Mukul Wasnik asked Mr. Kannan to explain why disciplinary action should not be initiated against him for not campaigning for the party candidate, V. Narayanasamy, and issuing ‘irresponsible’ statements to the media.

In an interview to

The Hindu , Mr. Kannan said: “They alleged that I worked against the official candidate. This is not true. Everybody knows I did not campaign at all. Had I worked against him [Mr. Narayanasamy], he would have been defeated by a bigger margin of more than a lakh votes.”

Ridiculing the allegations against him, Mr. Kannan said: “The elections were held in April. They [the AICC] took six months to find out that I had indulged in anti-party activities.”

Mr. Kannan also said Mr. Narayanasamy had not invited him for campaigning. “When that is the case, where is the issue of discipline,” he asked.

When Mr. Narayanasamy telephoned him before the polls, he came forward to formulate campaign plans. But his offer was spurned.

Mr. Kannan also denied that he had made irresponsible statements against the Congress, though he was within his right to caution the party whenever he felt it was losing direction, or overlooking the interests of the cadre.

He said he would respond to the notice. “I have been in the Congress since my boyhood days — from the times of Indira Gandhi and Kamaraj — and I cannot be a silent spectator when something goes wrong with the party or partymen,” Mr. Kannan said.

On the possibility of reviving the Puducherry Makkal Congress, the breakaway party he had formed, Mr. Kannan said it was premature.