THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The
political affairs committee
(PAC) meeting witnessed a
heated debate
after former chief minister Chandy skipped the event on Saturday. Senior leaders like Mullappally Ramachandran, P C Chacko, P J Kurien and K C Venugopal criticised Chandy for his absence and delaying the PAC meeting. Chacko and Kurien said that
KPCC
should not have delayed the meeting to accommodate one person. Kurien even flayed Chandy for putting the entire party in a fix.
However KPCC vice-president MM Hassan defended the former chief minister saying that Chandy had made it clear that the PAC can be convened and he would join it at appropriate time. Hence, he cannot be blamed.
K Muraleedharan flayed KPCC president V M Sudheeran for attempting to side-line a leader like Chandy. He felt that the move will not do anything good for the party. He criticized Sudheeran for not making a statement when Rajmohan Unnithan had launched a scathing attack against him. To this, Sudheeran replied that he had sought Unnithan's resignation after the incident.
Even though 'I' group leader did not comment on this issue at the meeting, 'A' group leaders like Benny Behanan and K C Joseph attacked Sudheeran for airing his personal opinion on crucial issues even before discussing it in the party. They alleged that the KPCC president did not stand by K Babu in the bar bribery case and took a negative approach.
But, Sudheeran was not ready to accept the fact that Chandy had skipped the meeting due to the difference of opinion he had with the party leadership. "Chandy never said that. He had communicated to us that he would not be attending the meeting due to personal reasons," said Sudheeran after the meeting.
Sudheeran said that there was no question of the party side-lining a popular leader like Chandy. "The party cannot move forward without Chandy and everyone realizes that. I believe the party high command has called him for a discussion next week and I hope everything will be sorted out," he said.
When asked whether the meeting criticized the former chief minister for his absence, Sudheeran said that there was a collective opinion that a senior leader like Chandy should have been present.
He refuted reports that Chandy was staying away from all party functions. Chandy has been attending all campaigns launched by the KPCC against both the state and central governments.
AICC
observer K V Thangkabalu attended the political affairs committee meeting in place of AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik.
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