Cong candidate in Nattika slams move to field Mukundan

Thrissur: KPCC secretary and UDF candidate in Nattika assembly constituency Sunil Laloor has launched a veiled attack on the KPCC general secretary Jose Valloor for allegedly trying to field C C Mukundan as Congress nominee there. Mukundan, who was a CPI MLA in the outgoing assembly, later contested as the BJP candidate at Nattika."People will give befitting reply to those who had taken Mukundan to Delhi to make him the candidate, despite the fact that he (Mukundan) was moving with a BJP mindset," Laloor said in a Facebook post. It had been widely reported then that Valloor and Mukundan had gone to Delhi together when the discussions to finalize the Congress candidate list were in progress there. However, Laloor has not named Valloor in the post. Predictably the supporters of Valloor, including Youth Congress leader Shine Nattika, have come out in the open criticising Laloor and demanding his expulsion from the party. They claimed that Valloor had gone to Delhi with Mukundan as per the directive of the party leaders. When contacted, Laloor refuted their claims. In fact, the AICC leaders even refused to meet them, Laloor said. Mukundan, who was the sitting MLA at Nattika, had raised a banner of revolt against the CPI leadership when it became clear that the party would not give him ticket this time. Both Congress and BJP leaders had tried to rope in Mukundan to their side. Even though Mukundan first tried to move to Congress, that party leadership was not ready to field him as the candidate in Nattika. BJP was quick to seize the opportunity and made him the party candidate. Laloor's criticism is targeted at the party leaders who tried to deny him seat and instead field Mukundan.