KPCC president blocked Karunakaran’s return to Congress

NEW DELHI: “So long as Ramesh Chennithala is in the good books of 10, Janpath, it is hard time for K Karunakaran and his son K Muraleedharan,” said a top Congress functionary to Haindava Keralam during a discussion on the fall out of the CPM dumping Karunakaran and his son like hot potatoes. “Ramesh Chennithala fears that his position in the party would become vulnerable once Karunakaran and Muraleedharan rejoin Congress,” said the Congress functionary who does not want to be named.

“The AICC president does not have any ill will to Karunakaran or Murali. It was people like Chennithala who played a major role in vitiating the relations between Sonia and Karunakaran,” he said.

According to top Congress leaders in New Delhi, neither A K Antony or Oommen Chandi were against Karunakaran or Murali. “Both of them want the father-son duo back in the party. No one can deny the role played by K Karunakaran in ensuring the victory of the UDF in the 2001 elections to Kerala Assembly,” said another Congress leader who has worked with both Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.  “Now that he has become KPCC President, Ramesh Chennithala is eyeing for the chair of the chief minister. Once Karunakaran comes back to Congress, Chennithalas’s chief ministerial ambitions will suffer a set back,” he pointed out.

Chennithala, who was a Karunakaran acolyte during the eighties turned against his mentor when he was denied any role in the party and the government following the Congress victory in the 1991 Assembly election. He formed a ginger group along with G Karthikeyan and Shanawas, two other discontented members of the Karunakaran clan. Karthikeyan, who has the looks of a ruffian, failed to impress the national leadership of the party while Chennithala, who changes colours like a chameleon ‘walked away with the hearts of Sonia Gandhi’. “He behaves like a servile in front of people like Ahmed Patel, Vincent George and Ambika Soni. And he does not have any qualm in proclaiming his servitude to the Nehru-Gandhi family,” said yet another Congress leader from the south.

“People like Chennithala are ample proof of the age old adage that never trust a physically dwarf person. It is a pity to see Chennithala standing in attention to people like Tom Vadakken and Ranjith Varghese,” said the Congress leader.

All the Congress leaders who spoke to Haindava Keralam pointed out that S Krishnakumar and Usha Krishnakumar were readmitted to the Congress at the behest of Chennithala. “He knows very well that Krishnakumar can never be a threat to him in Kerala. It is the news about Karunakaran’s coming back to the party which disturbs Chennithala,” said the leader.