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Karunakaran backs down

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM June 10. The AICC general secretary, Ahmed Patel, today returned to Delhi laden with the factional bundle and without satisfying any of the factions. But he did leave a clear indication that the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, continued to enjoy the support of the AICC.

This was evident from his reluctance to accept a memorandum from the Karunakaran faction faintly suggesting a leadership change. However, he reportedly accepted a note submitted by two senior leaders belonging to the faction. The unsigned note listed out the failures of the Antony Government, emphasising the point that it was gradually getting alienated from the people and the ordinary Congress workers. It also wanted a change in the current situation. The Karunakaran faction appears to have deliberately been cryptical about the kind of change it wanted, but there are quite a few leaders who interpret it as a call for a change in the style of functioning of the Antony Government.

Even at a `meet the press' programme earlier in the day, Mr. Patel showered praise on the Antony Government, particularly in relation to handling several issues, including the Marad violence and its performance on the economic front. He did admit that he had received several grievances from party leaders on some of the lapses at the Government and organisational levels.

Mr. Patel could take credit for arranging for a joint meeting, attended by the veteran Congress leader, K. Karunakaran, Mr. Antony and the KPCC president, K. Muraleedharan, to evaluate the actual problems faced by the party. He indicated to The Hindu that a lack of coordination and communication between the PCC and the CLP could be one of the problems.

Mr. Patel's visit has established that the factionalism, which hit a trough during the recent Rajya Sabha election, is likely to be torrid in the coming days. As far as Mr. Karunakaran is concerned, Mr Ahmed's visit has given him an opportunity to bring back his original scheme to push for a leadership change.

After the Rajya Sabha imbroglio, Mr. Karunakaran has been actually on the backfoot. He barely staved off disciplinary action against his MLAs and the KPCC president. In fact, the voting in the Rajya Sabha election had deprived him off his original agenda.

With the State Assembly slated to start its budget session from June 16, Mr Patel's visit has helped Mr Karunakaran set the stage to use the Congress Legislature Party forum to revive his scheme. Mr Karunakaran's decision not to submit the memorandum to the AICC general secretary was perhaps a tactical withdrawal. It appears that Mr. Karunakaran succeeded in protecting his son, K Muraleedharan, at the KPCC executive meeting, going by the surprising silence of his supporters. It appears that he has set his eyes on the Assembly session.

During the last session, Mr. Karunakaran's supporters stayed away from participating in the general debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor's address and the general debate on the Budget for 2003-04. His supporters are apparently looking forward to re-inventing this strategy this time, by using the CLP forum. Besides, even a passive action in the assembly would fetch him greater political mileage.

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