Congress leaders in Kerala sing unity chorus

A day after partners in the ruling UDF in Kerala took up with AICC chief Sonia Gandhi differences in the state unit of Congress, top state party leaders today said they would work together to retain power in the assembly polls due early next year.
In a show of unity, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President V M Sudheeran jointly held a press meet here and asserted that the "mission of Congress and UDF is to prepare their cadres to retain power'.
Both Chandy and Chennithala, a former KPCC chief, agreed with Sudheeran's view that the party and the UDF would move forward by ensuring complete unity.

The leaders indicated that the row over a letter purported to have been written by Chennithala against Chandy was a closed chapter and said the party did not have any issue that cannot be resolved.
The leaders' joint statement assumes significance in the wake of front partners during their meeting with Gandhi yesterday expressing concern over the growing "disunity" in Congress and sought her intervention to resolve the differences.
They said the joint press meet was aimed at dispelling any misunderstanding and not directed by Gandhi, as reported by a section of media.

"The decision to hold the joint press meet was taken by all of us together," Chandy said.

"The opinion expressed by KPCC Chief is the sentiment of the party workers and unity of the party is one of the main factors for the victory of UDF in the recent by-polls and last Parliament elections," he added.
Congress and the UDF was united and would fight the coming polls unitedly, he asserted.
Referring to its poor showing in the recent civic polls, Chandy said that due to certain reasons the front could not perform as expected.
To a question whether he would be Chief Minister again
if the UDF comes back to power, Chandy said it was not Congress' tradition to name its leader before the polls.

"The Chief Minister would be decided by party leadership and elected MLAs," he added.
On the letter row, Sudheeran said he agreed with Chandy that there was no importance to the issue. "The person said to have written had denied it and AICC also had said that it had not received any such letter," he said.
Chennithala maintained that he had not written such a letter and said "they are not taking it seriously".
The letter had triggered a row as it targeted Chandy and said that the CM's image had come down due to various scams, and also because of "minority dominance" in the Front and shrinking of Hindu vote bank, paving the way for BJP's growth.

On the KPCC decision to prepare the party and Front for the coming polls, Sudheeran said instructions had been given to party workers not to make controversial public statements on matters related to party and government.
"Special care would be taken to see that the party moves forward with out any factionalism. It was also resolved to make the Jana Raksha Yatra, planned by the KPCC President, from Kasargod to Thiruvanthapuram from January 4 to February 9, a grand success. It is an important campaign mission of the party," Sudheeran added.