Karunakaran floats new party

Muraleedharan to head party, Congress cautions kerala legislators

After months of nail-biting suspense and speculation over whether he will or he won't, veteran Congress leader K Karunakaran, at last split from the Congress to form the National Congress (Indira) at his faction's state-level workers' convention here today.

The central Congress leadership reacted immediately, taking a dim view of the proceedings. Congress General Secretary Ambika Soni at once warned MLAs not to move out of the Congress as that would amount to defection, now that Karunakaran had formed a new outfit.

"'There is no ideological difference. The reason is something different. We do not know what it is. But the people of Kerala know what are all the reasons," Ahmad Patel, political secretary to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said.

"Antony is not good. Chandy is not good either. Everybody is not good. Then what can we do?" Patel said about Karunakaran's motivations.

Every senior Congress leader""from former comrade-in-arms Pranab Mukherjee to Patel""called Karunakaran and tried to dissuade him from taking any "unwise" decision.

But Karunakaran had come too far down the dissidence path and was apparently unable to withdraw all the things he had said against the Congress in Kerala.

Today's decision was the formalisation of group politics, which is a norm in Kerala. Not surprisingly, Karunakaran appointed his son and recently expelled Congress leader, Muraleedharan, the leader of the new party. Around 13 MLAs are thought to be loyal to Karunakaran in the state.

"I swear to eradicate discrimination, corruption and atrocities in the state," Muraleedharan said when he was anointed chief of the new party. He""and Karunakaran"" were careful neither to attack Sonia Gandhi nor the central leadership and trained their guns on Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Muraleedharan said the Chandy government was "anti-people" and was being run by the liquor lobby.

Predicting that the state government would not last long, Muraleedharan claimed that the new party was the "true" Congress.

Karunakaran's association with the Congress has been seven-decade-long and although he said with the support, love and commitment of the workers, the new party would emerge as the "real Congress", the question is whom it will tear away from the Congress, especially as Assembly elections in Kerala are due in less than a year.

The political and economic resolutions adopted by the convention made it clear that the new party would follow the policies of the United Progressive Alliance at the Centre and wished to strike an alliance with the Left and democratic forces in the state.

But senior party leaders, ministers and MLAs stayed away from the Thrissur convention, indicating that no big leader was likely to associate with the new party.

Of the 13 MLAs (of the 60-member Congress team in the House) who attended previous shows of strength by Karunakaran, only four had promised Muraleedharan their resignation.

On the other hand, Karun-akaran's understanding of the Congress at the level of wards is likely to hurt the Congress in several constituencies, though his candidates might not be in a position to win.

The question is whether the CPI(M) will decide to have any truck with Karunakaran. Traditionally, the Hindu voter would be brought to the Congress by Karunakaran, while the Muslim League used to get the Muslim votes, thus resulting in a winning combination for the Congress. Now, how the new party will impact the Kerala electoral scene remains to be seen.

Ready for a fight

• 13 party MLAs are said to be Karunakaran loyalists, but most senior leaders stayed away from the meet
• Kerala to go to the polls next year
• Karunakaran's exit may hurt the Cong in several seats, though his candidates might not be in a position to win
• New party will try to strike an alliance with the Left