New Delhi/Kannur: The All India Congress Committee on Monday issued a show-cause notice to senior leader K V Thomas who recently attended a seminar organised by the CPM ignoring his party's order.
The disciplinary committee of the party which met in New Delhi issued the notice asking Thomas to explain why it should not take action against him. The former Union minister has to reply to the notice within a week.
The disciplinary panel, chaired by A K Antony, took up the matter after Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K Sudhakaran requested the AICC to initiate disciplinary action against Thomas.
Sudhakaran on Monday called Thomas a traitor. Sudhakaran made a scathing attack on Thomas even as the disciplinary committee of the Congress was meeting.
"K V Thomas betrayed the Congress. It is evident that he has some agenda. We just have to find out if it is for himself or for someone else," Sudhakaran told reporters in Kochi.
Asked about Thomas' accusation that Congress supporters have been attacking him on cyberspaces, Sudhakaran said the party leadership had no clue about it. "I will bow before Thomas if he proves otherwise," he said.
Reacting to Sudhakaran's remarks, Thomas said the PCC chief may have certain agenda. “He unleashed a tirade against me even as the disciplinary committee was meeting. How improper is such a behaviour,” he asked.
In his letter to the AICC president, Sudhakaran said the KPCC leadership had unanimously decided not to accept the invitation to the Party Congress of CPI(M) in Kannur, "the district where 80 Congressmen were brutally murdered" by the Left party over the past years.
"Upon deliberations with senior Congress leaders in Kerala, we conclude that K V Thomas has violated the Party decorum, discipline and he has acted in contradiction to the directions of Congress Party. Therefore, as President of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, I recommend you to take strict and befitting disciplinary action against K V Thomas," Sudhakaran said in the letter, a copy of which was released to the media.
The KPCC chief said Thomas had also addressed press conferences over the last two days, denouncing the ideological position of the Congress party and its political agenda.
Taking part in the seminar on Sunday, Thomas hailed Marxist veteran and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as the 'pride of Kerala'.
In his address, Thomas justified his decision to attend the seminar, recalling a speech of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Parliament where he attacked the BJP Government, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dispensation has launched a frontal attack on the idea that India is a Union of States.
The former Union minister also called for a larger alliance of the Congress, Left and the like-minded parties to counter BJP at the national level.
Addressing the huge gathering of CPI(M) activists as "comrades and friends", Thomas began his speech lavishing praise on Vijayan and his administrative capabilities and development agenda.
