Thiruvananthapuram: Congress leader praises Modi, lands in trouble

Thiruvananthapuram: Former lawmaker A. P. Abdullakutty has come under the wrath of the Congress leadership over his Facebook post eulogising Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi for his "Gandhian values".

For quite some time, he has been lying low, holding no party posts. KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran said they had decided to seek an explanation from him.

The leadership was caught in a fix as his Facebook post went viral on Tuesday.

It laid out various schemes and projects brought out by Modi, "aiming at the masses that elevated his position."

Mr Abdullakutty termed Modi's victory due to his role as a statesman with a developmental agenda."Schemes like Swachh Bharat and Ujjwala Yojana were a few targeted at the poor. When Modi followed Gandhian values, he remembered the face of the poor while conceiving various people-friendly policies and schemes", he wrote on his Facebook wall.

Later, he said he has no plans to join the BJP.

It's not the first time he was eulogising Mr Modi. He had praised Mr Modi's Gujarat model of development when he was in the Left camp.

The KPCC president said a special sub-committee would probe the issue after the Kannur DCC complained to him.

Later, KPCC member M. A. Rohit unleashed a scathing attack on him.

"Such bhaktas (devotees) should not be allowed to stay in a big political institution like the Congress, and they should be thrown out", he wrote on Facebook. "I have felt that Abdullakutty is a man who always cosies up to authority. He cosies up to that side under the guise of the development. But it should not be at the cost of the Congress…..If you plan to go, go immediately to your old tent or Modi's tent…for us, both are equal…"