TRIVANDRUM, 25 March 2005 — Two days after a midnight resignation drama, Kerala’s Cultural Affairs Minister A.P. Anil Kumar yesterday said he was withdrawing his resignation from the Congress-led coalition government.
After a meeting that lasted only three minutes, he said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy refused to accept his resignation. “Leaders from top to bottom, including former Chief Minister A.K. Antony, urged me not to quit,” he told reporters after the meeting.
Earlier, he met Antony nearly for an hour at the MLA quarters. Suspended leader K. Muraleedharan, son of his mentor K. Karunakaran, also urged him not press for his resignation to be accepted.
Kumar said he did not want to make things difficult for Chandy, hence he took back his resignation.
Kumar said that he had resigned, as his conscience did not permit him to continue as a minister in the Chandy government following criticism by his Cabinet colleagues and legislators for not attending CLP meetings.
“I never wanted to harm any one. I still stand for unity,” Kumar said, adding that he very much agreed to Antony’s stand that there should not be a split in the Kerala unit of Congress.
Reacting to Kumar’s decision, Chandy said that he never wanted the minister to quit the Cabinet.
“It’s good that he has changed his stand,” he said.
Meanwhile, the election authorities have released the final draft for delimitation of 20 parliamentary and 140 Legislative Assembly constituencies in Kerala reflecting demographic changes.
According to the proposal, the southern part of Kerala will lose seven Assembly seats to Malabar. The Muslim-dominated Malappuram district corners the majority of them (four new constituencies) leaving one each to Cannanore, Calicut and Palghat.
