Thiruvananthapuram: Congress general secretary in-charge of Kerala Tariq Anwar on Saturday urged party leaders criticising the state party leadership, after the civic polls debacle, to desist from airing their differences publicly.

"I earnestly hope that our leaders will realise that by trading charges against each other, they are giving the strength to the opponents. The need of the houris to fight the opposition," he said in a statement.

Anwar urged all congress leaders in the state to desist from airing their differences publicly and instead take up their grievances at the party forum.

Their complaint will be looked into and resolved, he said.

Soon after the local body poll results were out on December16, rumblings had begun in the congress with some state leaders openly criticising KPCC president Mullapally Ramachandran for the party's poor show.

Posters had appeared in front of the KPCC office here seeking to dissolve the district congress committee.

Congress sympathisers in Kozhikode had also put up boards criticising the party's state leadership.

Ramachandran had on Thursday taken full responsibilityfor the party 's lacklustre performance in the local body polls.

"My activities since I took charge as KPCC chief is an open book, he said, adding success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.

Many senior leaders, including former Union minister P J Kurien and three Lok Sabha MPs-- K Muraleedharan, K Sudhakaran and Rajmohan Unnithan had attacked Ramachandran, saying the organisational set-up of the congress party was weak.

Flex boards had appeared on Saturday in front of the KPCC office here and some other places in the city in favour of K Sudhakaran, for the state KPCC president's post.

Posters had also appeared against Kollam DCC president, Bindu Krishna, alleging that she was a BJP agent and had worked of the saffron party in the polls.

Meanwhile, the AICC in a release said the Congress president has appointed P Vishwanathan, former MP, Ivan D'Souza and P V Mohan as secretaries.