KPCC president K Sudhakaran said the day Anil Antony chose to join the BJP was fitting. "You know what day this is," Sudhakaran asked reporters who gathered around him on Thursday. "It is Maundy Thursday. This day belongs to Judas who betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver," Sudhakran said.
Later, during the same interaction, Sudhakaran said that Antony had betrayed his own father A K Antony. Except to condemn Anil with this Biblical reference, the KPCC chief responded as if Anil's defection was irrelevant.
"Anil Antony is no one for the Congress beyond the fact that he is A K Antony's son. Neither have we given him any responsibility nor has he taken any. He has not waved the Congress flag, has not stuck posters for us, has not shouted Congress slogans, has not organised marches or participated in protests. He has done nothing. Then what is our problem if he leaves. There is nothing for us to get worried about," Sudhakaran said.
The KPCC chief also did not feel that A K Antony was under any moral obligation to prevent his son from joining the BJP. "Politics is highly personal. There are many families in which members hold opposing political views. You can't hold back anyone. These political differences do not break up familial ties either," Sudhakaran said.
Of Antony, he said: "I have always known him to be a person who disliked interfering in the personal freedoms of an individual." He said he had talked to Antony and found him to be saddened by what happened.
He trivialised Anil's shift in political allegiance saying the BJP would not be able to lure any Congress worker who had toiled for the party.
"No one who has given their sweat and blood for the party has left the Congress. Anil has not shed a drop of sweat for the party. He might have been Congress. But even we can't call him a Congressman with any certainty. He was A K Antony's son so we believe he was a congressman. Beyond that, Anil Antony is a young man who has no connection whatsoever with the party and its daily activities," he said.