Congress' Kerala unit chief unhappy over breach of discipline

With the local body elections to be held in November and the assembly polls early next year, Congress' Kerala unit president V.M.Sudheeran on Tuesday expressed his displeasure in the breach of discipline in the party.

Speaking at the special executive meeting of the party, Sudheeran also asked leaders at all levels to see that they are not engaged in a war of words in public and made it amply clear that under no circumstances would breaches of party discipline be tolerated.

Factionalism in the state unit has been long-standing and party posts and seats have always been divided between the various sections of the party.

"Winnability and the overall acceptance of the candidate will be the benchmark when it comes to selecting candidates for the local body polls and it will not be divided on the basis of factions," said Sudheeran in the meeting at the party headquarters here.

A reason attributed for the hyper-activity in the Congress and factionalism raising its head is the triumph at the recent Aruvikara by-election, when the party candidate K.Sabarinathan won the seat, which was held by his father and assembly speaker G.Karthikeyan who passed away early this year.

Sudheeran pointed out that it is of utmost importance to retain power as the value of it is realised only when out of power.

Meanwhile, a senior Congress leader, who did not want to be identified, told IANS that after the Aruvikara victory, these seems to be a 'feel good' factor for the party and even the Left opposition has a feeling that history will be made, as never before in the history of the state, has a sitting government retained power. "A clear picture would emerge during the upcoming local body election," said the leader.