TRIVANDRUM, 6 November — Congress party veteran K. Karunakaran swooped to the rescue of embattled politician R. Balakrishna Pillai at a meeting of Kerala’s ruling alliance and saved him from expulsion. Karunakaran, who has himself been receiving flak for slamming party colleague and Chief Minister A.K. Antony’s policies, said at a United Democratic Front (UDF) meeting here late Monday that Kerala Congress (B) chief Pillai’s criticism of the government could not be made a ground for expulsion. Saying there were several leaders at the meeting who had committed greater political sins like hobnobbing with the archrival leftist alliance in the state, former chief minister Karunakaran asked: “Has Pillai done such a heinous crime?” Pillai landed himself in trouble last week after his speech to a rally of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in which he accused the UDF of betraying the Muslim group by doing little to secure the release of its jailed chief Abdul Nasser Madani. Madani is in prison in Tamil Nadu for his alleged involvement in a bomb blast in the textile city of Coimbatore in 1998 just before L.K. Advani was to address an election rally. Several top UDF leaders had been baying for Pillai’s blood since his speech, leading to speculation that he would be expelled. But Pillai got support at the meeting from Karunakaran and some small partners in the UDF.