Thiruvananthapuram: After keeping mum for weeks, senior Congress leader Mullappally Ramachandran on Monday broke his silence on the ongoing crisis in the party's state unit and made clear his displeasure over Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Chief K Sudhakaran’s style of functioning.
Speaking to the media after a meeting with Tariq Anwar, AICC general secretary in charge of Kerala, Ramachandran challenged Sudhakaran's allegation that he was not picking up the party state chief's phone calls.
"First of all, you tell me if any of you have had such an experience from my side," Ramachandran said when reporters asked about Sudhakaran's charge. Ramachandran said none of his party colleagues, including the AICC functionaries who were with him, would make such a complaint against him.
Ramachandran was highly critical of Sudhakaran's statement that all senior leaders including Ramachandran were given time slots to discuss with him the ongoing restructuring process in the party.
"For the past 50 years, I did not have to meet any PCC president according to a slot. If such a situation arises, I will be the last man to go and meet such a person," he said.
On senior leader V M Sudheeran's resignation from the party's Political Affairs Committee and All India Congress Committee (AICC), Ramachandran said, not only Sudheeran but all senior leaders have to be taken along.
Asked about Sudhakaran's oft-repeated plan to make the party a semi-cadre organisation in the state, Ramachandran said, "It's imperative to bring in discipline in the party. A party cannot move forward without discipline. I don't think there's anything to dispute on it."
Anwar met Ramachandran as part of the consultations with senior leaders about the KPCC restructuring.
The Congress in Kerala had been witnessing a series of resignations and defections following the appointment of Sudhakaran as KPCC chief in the wake of the party's drubbing in the assembly elections earlier this year. Sudhakaran was appointed KPCC chief replacing Ramachandran.