TRIVANDRUM, 8 October 2003 — Kerala Chief Minister A.K. Antony came under fierce political fire yesterday as Congress party President Sonia Gandhi huddled with her senior colleagues at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi to find a solution to the bitter factional feud that was threatening the United Democratic Front (UDF) government the party leads in Kerala.

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President K. Muraleedharan who met Sonia for 45 minutes told her the dissidents led by his father K. Karunakaran would accept nothing short of a change of guard while N. Venugopal, one of the KPCC general secretaries loyal to him said the ‘I’ group was preparing for a final assault.

With the rivalries already seeping into the grassroots level, Sonia Gandhi is likely to call both Karunakaran and Antony to New Delhi for talks if the dissidence could not be put down with an iron hand. Dhavan said the high command was ready to discuss all issues including leadership change.

According to reports from New Delhi, Sonia Gandhi held detailed discussions with Ahmed Patel, the party general secretary in charge of Kerala, R.K. Dhavan and the two observers she sent to Ernakulam by-election, Veerappa Moily and G.K. Vasan, on the Kerala crisis. Karunakaran is leaving for New Delhi next week.

Moily and Vasan said they had reported to Sonia the dissident activities during the Ernakulam by-election while Muraleedharan said there was no campaign against the official candidate by any Congress worker though many abstained from the campaigning as they did not like the candidate.

“If we face the next Lok Sabha elections under the present leadership, it would be a disaster for the party. I have also told Sonia Gandhi about the one and only solution to sort out the Kerala problem,” Murali told reporters in New Delhi.

On the Nov. 19 deadline set by the ‘I’ group for leadership change, Murali said: “No ultimatum has been served on the Congress High Command. We are not fools to do so.”

The KPCC president also made it clear that the ‘I’ group will not do anything that would harm the Marad accord. “Though we have reservations about the manner in which the accord was finalized, we will not do anything which will upset the rehabilitation of displaced families,” he said.

Muslim League Keeps Options Open

Leaders of the second largest coalition partner Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) yesterday met at the residence of the state unit president Panakkad Syed Mohammed Ali Shihab Thangal and expressed disappointment over the functioning of the government.

Thangal, E. Ahmed MP, the all India general secretary, and Industries Minister P.K. Kunhalikkutty, the state committee general secretary, told reporters after the meeting attended by 15 of 18 Secretariat members that the League was prepared to face “any political situation”.

Through three separate resolutions, the IUML said the government, which came to power on development agenda, had failed to come up to the expectations of the people. The Ernakulam debacle was because of its failure to regain the confidence of the minorities after the chief minister’s controversial statement against them. The third resolution patted on the government’s back for successfully brokering a truce between the Hindu and Muslim communities on the troubled Marad beach.