By NNN-PTI,
Thiruvananthapuram, India : After the CPI-M and the Congress, it is the turn of the NCP to launch a television channel in Malayalam language , which will be headed by K Muraleedharan, son of former Kerala state Chief Minister K Karunakaran.
Muraleedharan, who heads the NCP state unit in Kerala, is the prime-mover behind the media venture, provisionally named ‘Janapriya.’
If the project works out as planned, the news and entertainment channel would go on air by June 2009.
“It is envisaged as a Joint Venture involving an initial cost of Rs 20 crore with the party holding 51 per cent of the equities and the rest to be mobilised as outside shares,”Muraleedharan, CMD of the channel and former KPCC chief told PTI recently. (One Crore: 100,000)
Muraleedharan continued to remain in NCP, even though his father Karunakaran returned to the Congress.
A six-member director board, comprising senior NCP leaders including former minister A C Shanmughadas and A K Saseendran, MLA, had been formed for implementation of the project.
The concurrence of the party’s national leadership under Union Minister Sharad Pawar for the project had been obtained, Muraleedharan said.
Though not a party-controlled channel technically, CPI(M) was the first political party in Kerala to launch a joint- venture television channel supporting its views. The Congress followed suit with its Jai Hind channel last year.
Known for its vibrant media scene, apart from half-a-dozen news and entertainment channels, Kerala has a couple of Christian evangelical channels and a news and entertainment channel supported by Amritanandamayi Mutt, Amritha TV.