The spectre of an all-out factional warfare looms over the Congress in the district with leaders and workers supporting and opposing K. Sudhakaran, MP, taking positions in the wake of the controversy over the poster issue.
Close on the heels of the demand by the anti-Sudhakaran camp for disciplinary action against leaders, including Mr. Sudhakaran, for “raising issues that should be discussed in party forums and maligning the image of the Chief Minister and the United Democratic Front (UDF) government,” Sudhakaran loyalists said at a press conference here on Wednesday that the stand of a section defending district Superintendent of Police (SP) Anup Kuruvila John in the dispute between the MP and the police officer would not be accepted by party workers.
The order of the SP to remove a poster of the Kerala Police Association district unit praising Mr. Sudhakaran for the release of
ADVERTISEMENT
Rs.10 lakh from the MP's fund for the construction of a swimming pool at the Kerala Armed Police Battalion IV camp at Mangattuparamba and the subsequent suspension of six police personnel after the poster was reinstalled had sparked a row in the Congress, with Sudhakaran supporters alleging that the removal of the poster was ill-motivated and an attempt to insult the MP in public.
The group rivalry came out into the open after a group of Mr. Sudhakaran's supporters removed and damaged the posters carrying portraits of Mr. Chandy on January 30 after the MP questioned the legality of such posters. Party leaders, including former Ministers K.P. Nooruddin and N. Ramakrishnan; Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) secretary Satheeshan Pacheni; and the former MLA A.D. Musthafa; said at a press conference here on January 31 that the posters in the Collectorate would not have been damaged and removed without the nod of Mr. Sudhakaran.
Countering the charge, leaders loyal to Mr. Sudhakaran, including KPCC executive committee members M. Narayanankutty, K.C. Kadambooran and V.A. Narayanan; All India Congress Committee member Suma Balakrishnan; and Indian National Trade Union Congress State general secretary K. Surendran; said at a press conference here on Wednesday that the boards carrying Mr. Chandy's portraits had not been removed on the instruction of Mr. Sudhakaran.
ADVERTISEMENT
They said Congress workers in the district had not got justice from the government after the United Democratic Front (UDF)
came to power. The party workers here had received a more fair treatment from the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, they said adding that all leaders belonging to different groups in the party had aired their criticism of the police in the district. The Congress workers in the district were at the receiving end of violence being unleashed by workers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while they were denied justice by the police. They also released a handout listing instances of unfair treatment of party workers by the police.