By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi: K. Muraleedharan, the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Kerala unit chief, Friday said he would appeal to Sonia Gandhi to revoke his suspension, while his father K. Karunakaran met the Congress president in the national capital.
“I was suspended from the Congress party for six years. I will apply to Sonia Gandhi, who as national president suspended me, and also to party general secretary in-charge of Kerala affairs Mohsina Kidwai to revoke my suspension,” Muraleedharan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.
The NCP, meanwhile, was quick to expel Muraleedharan and M.P. Gangadhar, an invitee to the party’s national working committee, for anti-party activities — the same reason for which he was suspended from the Congress in 2005.
After his suspension from the Congress, Muraleedharan, along with his father and supporters, formed the Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran (DIC-K). In 2005, the DIC-K merged with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
While Karunakaran returned to the Congress fold in December 2007, Muraleedharan did not. On Thursday, he asked NCP’s national president Sharad Pawar to dissolve its state committee.
Muraleedharan also said the Congress is a party that forgives.
“It has forgiven lot of leaders who had breached discipline and I am sure that the party will look into my case also because I have now mentally decided to join the Congress party,” said Muraleedharan.
NCP president Sharad Pawar, while expelling Muraleedharan, simultaneously dissolved the Kerala state committee and constituted an ad hoc panel with NCP general secretary T.P. Peethambaran Master as its convenor.
Muraleedharan’s father and Congress veteran K. Karunakaran, meanwhile, met Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.
While the 91-year-old stayed away from the media after the meeting, informed sources said the party high command was yet to make up its mind on the issue.
Congress sources told IANS that Karunakaran had come with a request to the leadership to allow his son to join the party again. He also reportedly discussed the possibility of his being made governor of Andhra Pradesh or any other south Indian state.
Other Congress leaders from Kerala like Ramesh Chennithala and former chief minister Oommen Chandy have strongly urged that the party high command not take Muraleedharan back.
“Our party has been performing wonderfully since Muraleedharan was ousted. There is discipline and unity in the party now. If Muraleedharan comes back, everything will collapse. So we will strongly oppose any move to take him back,” a senior Congress leader told IANS on condition of anonymity.
Reacting to Muraleedharan’s move to return to the Congress fold, party spokesman in Kerala M.M. Hassan said Thursday that the “Congress is not an inn”.