Karunakaran not to accept party poll outcome

Senior Congress leader K. Karunakaran has said that he will not accept the outcome of the organisational elections in the State unit of the party.

Mr. Karunakaran told reporters here on Saturday that whatever be the outcome of the elections, he and his supporters would not accept it. It has been reduced to a farce. Certain people are suspected of making mysterious moves to bring the State party leadership under their control. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala and Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy had visited him a couple of times, but no fruitful discussions were held. The State leadership is trying to deceive the party high command. Being a senior Congress worker, becoming part of an election process like this is shameful, he said.

After deciding the candidates to be elected from the booth to the KPCC, attempts are on to impose the list on the diligent worker. Never before in the history of the party had the elections been reduced to such a sham, he said.

Once the State returning officer is appointed, he should fix the assistant returning officer and district returning officers and conduct the elections from the booth to the State level within the stipulated time. Once the returning officer takes charge, the powers of the KPCC president will be limited. But none of the constitutional procedures has been followed. Even the membership campaign was not conducted in a flawless manner. The leadership had not called meetings of workers at the booth level to elicit their views. Neither the mandalam nor the block committees had been formed in the right manner.

Mr. Karunakaran, who has been active in the party since 1936, said that he was pained by way the elections were being conducted. He had taken up the issue with Congress president Sonia Gandhi twice or thrice, but to no avail. Instead of trying to strengthen the party from the booth level through the elections, attempts to demoralise party workers will not help to activate the machinery for the coming civic elections.

No organisational activities have been held in the State for the past three months in the name of the elections. Mr. Karunakaran said that he would take up the issue with the high command again.