Reacting sharply against his removal as district secretary, Venjaramood Sasi charged the state leadership with singling out a few for the "flawed selection of candidate" for the seat. Another senior leader P Ramachandran Nair, demoted from state executive to the district council, resented the manner in which the leadership proceeded on the matter and said he would be appealing to the party Control Commission against the action.
The demotion of three leaders, including national council member C Divakaran, was based on the report of an internal inquiry panel, which found them responsible for the party nominee Bennet Abrham getting relegated to the third position with Congress's Shashi Tharoor securing a second consecutive victory and BJP's O Rajagopal ending up as the runner-up.
The party had fixed responsibility on these three leaders for "flawed selection of the candidate" which it believed was prime factor for the humiliation at the hustings. Sasi, who had already hinted at leaving the party, told reporters today that the entire state secretariat should have resigned owning responsibility for the candidate selection instead of cracking whip on a select few.