Kerala Assembly Elections: Losers go for blame game

Kochi: The setback suffered by the Congress in the elections has led to a fresh round mudslinging by defeated candidates against party leadership and colleagues. Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of the late K. Karunakaran, set the tone for others by blaming the senior leaders of the party for her humiliating defeat in Thrissur against CPI nominee VS Sunilkumar.

Equating her situation with the backstabbing experienced by her father Karunakaran, Ms Venugopal, who is also KPCC general secretary, said she has not received proper support from senior leaders in the district. Although she has not named any person her target was C N Balakrishnan and Therambil Ramakrishnan during the poll campaign.

“I did not see any of these leaders in Thrissur during the campaigning”, she said. Both Balakrishnan and Ramakrishnan rejected her contention. “She made such comments as she is upset by defeat”, Mr. Balakrshnan said. Therambil said Padmaja was not a kid to be taught about each and every aspects of campaigning.

In a veiled attack on KPCC president VM Sudheeran, K Babu, former minister, has said the uncertainty over finalizing his candidature as one of the prime reasons for his defeat. The position taken by Sudheeran cannot be held responsible for the defeat.

“But, the uncertainty over the candidature has been used by opponents to create an impression that I was unwanted by the party”, he said. Mr. Babu also said that the liquor policy has not paid the expected dividend for the UDF.
Dominic Presentation, who lost the polls in Kochi, blamed a section of the leaders belonging to the ‘A’ group for the setback.

The rebel candidate also hit the chances, he added. Laly Vincent, who lost the poll in Alapuzha said rejecting the suggestions made by Mr. Sudheeran in the candidate selection, was one of the key factors for the defeat of the party. If some of the tainted ministers stayed away from the polls it would have brightened the chances of the party, she added.