K Muraleedharan backs Oommen Chandy, triggers war of words

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: RSP leader A.A. Azeez’s comment favouring former chief minister Oommen Chandy as KPCC president has triggered a war of words among the Congress leaders  with Mr K. Muraleedharan supporting Mr Chandy and  Mr Joseph Vazhakkan and KPCC vice-president V. D. Satheesan backing Mr Ramesh Chennithala. Mr Muraleedharan  told reporters in Kollam that Mr Chandy was  more qualified to serve as the Opposition Leader  and added that most  Congress leaders thought so.

Mr Vazhakkan  said that Mr Muraleedharan was  jealous and had wanted to become the  Opposition Leader.   “Muraleedharan says different things at different times.”  He said. Mr  Satheesan also rallied behind Mr Chennithala saying that the Congress had  never thought of replacing the Opposition Leader. “These are baseless talks as the party has never discussed this. Through such talks, the Congress leaders themselves are humiliating Chandy,”  Mr Satheesan said in Kozhikode. 

Mr  Muraleedharan, who  belonged to the ‘I’ camp earlier, had cosied up to Mr Chandy’s ‘A’ camp after Mr Mr Chennithala was made the Opposition Leader.   A prominent Congress leader told DC that the AICC had proposed Mr Muraleedharan as AICC general secretary,  which he had rejected as he was keen to serve in the state. “Chennithala has felt that Muraleedharan is a threat to his dream of becoming the chief minister. But Muraleedharan wants to make  his voice  heard in Kerala and has tried to remain a corrective force in the party and in the state’s politics,”  the leader said.

Mr Azeez had said on Saturday,   “Chennithala does not have the ability to work as hard as Chandy who devotes 24 hours for the party. He wouldn’t get the kind of consideration and people’s approval that Chandy gets. And this is the opinion not only among the allies, but within the Congress itself,” he said at a press meet at the RSP headquarters here.