TRIVANDRUM, 11 April 2005 — Kerala’s ruling Congress party appeared set for a split after sacking its former state unit chief K. Muraleedharan yesterday. The action provoked an angry response from Muraleedharan and his father K. Karunakaran. Muraleedharan was expelled from the party for six years.
In a decision that is bound to have far-reaching consequences, the Congress finally came down hard on Muraleedharan, capping months of dissidence which led to the party’s rout in parliamentary elections last year.
A furious Muraleedharan immediately vowed to set up the “real Congress” while Karunakaran, a strongman of Kerala politics, branded the decision “a cruel and thankless” one. While Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who has had problems with the father-son duo, justified the decision, his predecessor A.K. Antony, who had been urging a rapprochement between the party leadership and Karunakaran, was silent.
As late as last week, it appeared that Antony might succeed. But yesterday, the Congress leadership cracked the whip. Muraleedharan, meanwhile, pledged to fight on but concentrated his fire against Chandy.
He said that no one could oust him from the Congress because he had always been a Congress worker. “Our fight against Oommen Chandy will be intensified and from now on he has his way and I will have my way,” he said. “At the moment a new party is not the (way out) but I will work for setting up the real Congress because I can be only expelled from the party and not as a Congressman.”
Sources close to him suggested that Muraleedharan could form a party called “Indira National Congress”, an event that is sure to further erode the Congress support base in the state.
An emotional Karunakaran termed the decision as a thankless one. “This is a cruel and a thankless decision from the Congress high command that has been handed out to me in my 75th year with the party. “As long as I breathe I will not bend my head before anyone. Instead I will go to my workers and the people of Kerala,” Karunakaran told reporters. Even as Chandy called the expulsion of Muraleedharan inevitable, at least one Congress legislator came out openly in support of the Karunakaran-Muraleedharan duo.
“The AICC (All India Congress Committee) did give a lot of breathing time to Muraleedharan. Even after he was suspended from the party he did not keep quiet. Instead he went on the offensive,” Chandy said.
“Even Antony and other leaders tried their best but there was Muraleedharan did not stop his sniping.”
Muraleedharan had to step down as minister in the state government headed by Antony after his shock defeat in an assembly by-election in May last year. Suspended from the Congress last month for organizing what the party’s central leadership termed as dissident rallies, Muraleedharan had been taking pot shots at Chandy.
Muraleedharan, a former Lok Sabha member, held three rallies in March, defying directives from the Congress.
D. Suganthan, a Congress member of the Kerala assembly, said he and his supporters were waiting to hear from Karunakaran about their future plans. “We are certainly behind Karunakaran and will abide by whatever he decides,” he said.
Karunakaran has in the past given indications that he might throw his lot with the opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Though Karunakaran claims to have the support of 13 Congress legislators, only four or five of them are prepared to leave the Congress with him, according to indications available here.
In a related development, the national Congress leadership is expected to take part in the official party rallies being organized in the state to mark the 75th anniversary of the Dandi march. The first of the three rallies will take place here on April 13, said former minister and party leader M.M. Hassen. The other rallies will be held at Cochin and Kozhikode.
