Date:09/07/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/09/stories/2009070950140100.htm

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JD(S) faction to fight dissolution

Special Correspondent

Says Deve Gowda has no authority to dissolve the State unit of the party

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Janata Dal (Secular) faction led by M.P. Veerendrakumar has formally rejected the JD(S) national council decision to dissolve the party State unit and decided to issue a show cause notice to N.M. Joseph, who has been nominated State president of the party by JD(S) president H.D. Deve Gowda.

Briefing reporters after a meeting of office-bearers of the JD(S) State council attended by majority of the party’s State-level functionaries and three of the five party MLAs, Mr. Veerendrakumar said Mr. Gowda had no authority to dissolve the State unit as it was a separate entity registered as a State party and had no legal link with the national outfit.

The State JD(S) would initiative legal proceedings against Mr. Gowda’s decision and decide its future course of action at the JD(S) State council meeting slated for July 12, Mr. Veerendrakumar said.

He said the JD(S) leadership led by Mr. Gowda did not have any authority to issue a whip to the party MLAs in Kerala as they were under the State JD(S). On the allegation that he had sought clearance from the party leadership to contest as a UDF candidate in Vadakara in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Veerendrakumar said there was neither a request of the kind nor any discussion on the subject. Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy himself had rejected the allegation, he said.

Asked whether JD(S) legislators, who had won as LDF candidates, would step down in the wake of the current developments in the party, Mr. Veerendrakumar said by that measure, all the LDF legislators who had won with the support of the JD(S) should also resign. In the Lok Sabha elections, the UDF had secured greater number of votes in all the Assembly segments except Thalassery falling within the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency. If one were to go by the argument against the JD(S), all the LDF legislators from these constituencies much also so, Mr. Veerndra Kumar said.

On the charge that the faction led by him had taken sides with the Achuthanandan faction in the CPI(M), he said the charge was baseless. He demanded to know how Mr. Gowda, who had allied with the BJP to make his son the Chief Minister in Karnataka, could say anything of the kind.