Congress hopes Karunakaran will relent

By Javed M. Ansari

NEW DELHI, APRIL 8. The Congress leadership today indicated it was unlikely to accept Mr. K. Karunakaran's resignation from the Congress Working Committee. ``He is one of the seniormost leaders of the party and for some reason he is unhappy at the moment, but there is no question of accepting his resignation,'' said the party general in-charge of Kerala, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad.

This view was also echoed by other senior leaders, including Mr. Oscar Fernandes and Mr. Motilal Vora. Despite Mr. Karunakaran's shotgun reaction the leadership should allow things to settle down before it made its move, was the feeling.

The party is also taking an indulgent view of Mr. Karunakaran's utterances and would like to ensure that nothing is said or done to provoke him further. ``We understand that he is angry, but he is a Congressman of great standing and will never do anything that will harm the party's interests,'' said Mr. Azad.

The leadership is also clear that while it will do nothing to provoke him it will also not go beyond a point in trying to please him. It appears highly unlikely that the list of candidates will be altered to accommodate Ms. Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of Mr. Karunakaran's daughter. Senior party leaders here said the list had been prepared in consultation with all members of the CEC and could not be changed arbitrarily.

The Central leadership feels it has already bent over backwards, on numerous occasions to accommodate Mr. Karunakaran's demands, and it must draw a line somewhere. It may encourage others also to make unreasonable demands, was the reasoning. According to party sources, though Mr. Karunakaran lost the Lok Sabha elections in 1996, he demanded and was given a Rajya Sabha seat the next year. During the 1998 Lok Sabha polls, with over five years of his Rajya Sabha term left, he forced the party to give him a ticket. The party tried to convince him against it as it would meant giving up the Rajya Sabha seat to the Leftists, but Mr. Karunakaran refused to see reason.

In 1999 too the party went out of its way to accommodate him and gave him and his son, Mr. Muraleedharan, a Lok Sabha ticket, though it meant shifting two sitting MPs from their seats. Mr. Karunakaran forced the leadership to dissolve the Kerala Youth Congress unit headed by a person belonging to a rival group. The Congress not only appointed his son the lone vice-president of the party, it also promised to make him the KPCC chief after the polls. The decision not to project Mr. A. K. Antony as the chief ministerial candidate was also taken to satisfy Mr. Karunakaran, say party leaders.

The upshot of all this is that the leadership is no longer inclined to give in to his unreasonable demands. Senior leaders here believe good sense will eventually prevail and Mr. Karunakaran will live up to his promise of not doing anything that will harm the interests of the UDF and pave the way for the return of the LDF.

Muraleedharan defiant

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 8. The Karunakaran faction in the group-ridden Kerala Congress today said it would not seek the high command's intervention to resolve the crisis in the State unit following the resignation of the senior leader, Mr. K. Karunakaran, as a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee over the selection of candidates for the May 10 Assembly polls.

``We are not going to beg the Central leadership's intervention to solve the problems. So far, no Central leader has contacted us,'' the KPCC vice-president and Mr. Karunakaran's son, Mr. K. Muraleedharan, MP, said. ``We are going to wait and watch. We have entrusted Mr. Karunakaran to take suitable decisions in the prevailing scenario.''

Ambika Soni for Thiruvananthapuram

NEW DELHI, APRIL 8. The Congress high command tonight deputed, Ms. Ambika Soni, a confidante of the party president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, to pacify Mr. K. Karunakaran who quit the CWC on Saturday.

Ms. Soni, AICC general secretary, is likely to leave for Thirvananthapuram tomorrow for talks with Mr. Karunakaran to sort out differences with him, party sources here said.

- PTI

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