KPCC asks state government to order probe into letter row

Days after a letter purportedly written by Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala against Chief Minister Oomen Chandy triggered a row, an embarrassed Congress state unit today asked the party-led UDF government to order a comprehensive probe into its source.
The content of the letter targeting Chandy for the poor performance of UDF in the recent civic polls had triggered a row after it was reported in the media in the past two days.
As Chennithala had made it clear that he had not sent such a letter and was of the opinion that it was a concocted one, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) urged the government to order a probe to find the source of the letter.

This was stated by KPCC President V M Sudheeran in his interaction with media at the Congress state headquarters Indirabhavan here after a meeting of KPCC executive committee that discussed the matter.
"It is for the government to decide on the mode of investigation," Sudheeran said.
Both Chandy and Chennithala were present when the matter was discussed, he added.

The KPCC chief said that the unit has accepted the denial of Chennithala on its face value.
"However, the party looks at it (the issue) very seriously as it is connected with state Home Minister. So a probe is necessary. The probe is to find out whether the letter is a forged one, if forged, who did it and source of the same," Sudheeran said.

The controversial letter had stated that the image of Chandy had taken a beating due to scams and a "serious surgery" was needed to ensure party victory in the assembly polls due next year.
The letter also sought the high command's intervention to chalk out a "proper strategy without further delay".
It further stated that the state's Hindu community had got alienated from the UDF due to "dominance of the minority community in the government". The letter had also mentioned about the growth of BJP in the state.
Sudheeran said KPCC executive also passed a resolution condemning BJP led NDA government's attempt to implicate Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.

"It is a clear case of political vendetta," he said and alleged that PMO had a role in it.
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On other matters discussed at the executive meet,
Sudheeran said KPCC wanted the Centre to take urgent steps to help rubber farmers in the state who were reeling under a financial crisis due to sharp fall in price of natural rubber in domestic market.
The Centre should ban rubber import and release Rs 500 crore to the state from the Central Agriculture Price Stablisation Fund to ensure reasonable rubber price to farmers, he said.
Similarly, coconut and cardamom farmers in the state were also facing crisis due to fall in prices, he said.

Lashing out at the Centre's economic policy, Sudheeran said price of essential commodities had gone up mainly due to "wrong policies" of NDA.