Kerala - Alappuzha   

`Consider Dalit candidate for Rajya Sabha poll'

By Our Staff Reporter

ALAPPUZHA, DEC. 18. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) general secretary Kodikkunil Suresh has said that the vacant seat to the Rajya Sabha from the State should be given to a Dalit leader from the Congress.

Speaking to reporters today, Mr. Suresh said that the Congress and the CPI(M) were ignoring Dalits while selecting candidates to the Rajya Sabha election. The Congress and the CPI(M) had not sent any Dalit MP to the Rajya Sabha from the State after the late Congress leader T.K.C. Vaduthala and P.K. Kunjachan of the CPI(M), Mr. Suresh said.

Rajya Sabha has become an unreachable destination for Dalits as there is no reservation. He said that he was able to contest the Lok Sabha elections only because the Dalits had reservation to the Lok Sabha. Mr. Suresh said that he had requested the Congress high command to nominate a Dalit leader as the Congress candidate to the vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Kerala. Anyway, a Congress candidate would contest to the vacant Rajya Sabha seat as the UDF candidate, he said.

If there was difficulty in considering Dalit candidates at present, they should be considered when vacancies arise in future, Mr. Suresh said.

Party polls

On the organisational elections in the Congress, Mr. Suresh said that the second stage of the election process had been completed. While some leaders demanded that contests should be held to the posts of office-bearers, leaders like Ramesh Chennithala had opined that office-bearers should be decided by consensus, Mr. Suresh said.

Infighting in CPI(M)

Mr. Suresh said that reports on organisational elections of the CPI(M) which appeared in various media proved that the party was heading to a serious crisis. The CPI(M) State secretary had to leave the venue of the party Malappuram district conference following the interference of a section of the delegates, he said.

Mr. Suresh said that the CPI(M) Aroor area conference had to be stopped by the party leadership and the delegates clashed at Parassala and Varkala. ``These incidents are a pointer to the rampant groupism in the party,'' he said.

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