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Karunakaran leaves in a huff New Delhi, January 21 He was accompanied by his son K. Muraleedharan, president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC). Mr Karunakaran, who has been persistently demanding the removal of Kerala Chief Minister A.K. Antony, has again raised a banner of revolt, virtually challenging the authority of the Congress Central leadership. The Congress President, it is learnt, spoke to him on the telephone on Tuesday night and was to meet Mr Karunakaran today for a final round of discussions. But the veteran leader left for Kerala by the first flight today. Congress sources said a compromise formula had been worked out where both sides had agreed that Mr. Antony would continue as Chief Minister, Mr Muraleedharan would be inducted into the Cabinet and a member of Karunakaran’s group will be the next KPCC chief. The “talks”, however, broke down over the choice of portfolio for Mr. Muraleedharan who is insisting on the Home or Finance Ministry. This is not agreeable to the Antony group which feels this would give Mr Karunakaran greater clout over the legislature party. Although he had publicly declared two days ago that he will not “do anything to harm the party or the state”, an angry Mr Karunakaran has now said he will call a meeting of his supporters shortly to decide on his next course of action. The Pranab Mukherjee-headed three-member AICC panel which is trying hard to broker peace between the two warring groups is continuing with its efforts. Mr Mukherjee is learnt to have spoken to Mr Karunakaran tonight to bring about a rapprochement.  |
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Badal meets Naidu New Delhi, January 21 “Mr Badal met me this morning and both BJP and SAD want to contest the coming Lok Sabha election together in Punjab,” Mr Naidu told newspersons here. Asked whether both parties have resolved the differences over seat-sharing, Mr Naidu merely said “discussions are on and no final decision has been taken.”
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Cong discusses UP strategy New Delhi, January 21 Today, Congress President Sonia Gandhi held a special brain-storming session with her party colleagues to discuss the party’s strategy for this crucial state, where the Congress is reduced to a
negligible force. The meeting, attended by AICC leaders Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Subodh Kant Sahay, Salman Khurshid and Birender Singh, follows Ms Gandhi’s recent tour of Uttar Pradesh. Coincidentally, while the Congress is focussing attention on Uttar Pradesh, Ms Gandhi’s children — Rahul and Priyanka — are on a three-day visit to her Lok Sabha constituency, Amethi. The meeting today, it is learnt, decided to prepare an action plan to follow-up on Ms Gandhi’s tour, identify the weaknesses in the party units and overhaul those which have become ineffective. At the same time, it was agreed to categorise all the Lok Sabha constituencies in accordance with the Congress party’s strength in each of them. This, it was
stated, would enable party strategists to zero in on the strong seats and concentrate on them. It was suggested at this meeting that the frontal organisations should be activated and workers be told to begin public contact programmes at the earliest. "The basic idea was to see how to move ahead without losing much time," said a senior Congress leader. Earlier, Mr Birender Singh recently entrusted with the charge of Uttar Pradesh, indicated that instead of spreading itself thin and frittering away its energies, the
Congress will adopt a "targeted" approach for this state. "We have to fix targets for action and then make all possible arrangements to achieve them," he said in an informal interaction with mediapersons. Admitting that the Congress has not been "clicking" with the people in Uttar Pradesh for years, Mr Singh said the party had to identify the reasons for their disenchantment and take remedial measures. He said since Lok Sabha elections were round the corner, the party would necessarily have to
resort to short-term measures to rejuvenate the organisation in UP. He said though unprecedented crowds had turned out to greet Congress president Sonia Gandhi on her recent tour of Western UP, these had to be converted into votes. Mr Singh maintained that this could only be done by the party cadres, who now need to be motivated. |
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