‘Congress unlike BJP, where discipline is imposed from Nagpur’

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 29 (IANS) Dismissing the present upheaval in the faction-ridden Kerala unit of the Congress, a senior AICC General Secretary said the party is unlike the BJP, where discipline is imposed from 'Nagpur'.

Addressing reporters here, All India Congress Committee General Secretary B.K. Hariprasad said the party always sees Kerala as a role model of the party.

"In our party, there is no imposing discipline -- unlike the BJP where discipline is imposed from Nagpur. In Kerala, we have very seasoned senior leaders and the party always looks upon the state as a role model," Hariprasad said.

He was responding to queries on the recent war of words between senior party leaders here, that forced the party high command to ask the party leaders to stop making their opinions public.

Things have gone from bad to worse in the state unit of the Congress with the three senior leaders in the party -- Oommen Chandy, V.M. Sudheeran and Ramesh Chennithala -- going their own way, with their aides sparring in public.

A bitter exchange of words took place between legislator K. Muraleedharan, son of the former Chief Minister late K. Karunakaran, and party spokesperson Rajmohan Unnithan, who has since quit the post.

"Mukul Wasnik who is in charge of the party affairs in the state and the leadership of the party are all seized of the affairs in the party here," Hariprasad added.

Chandy, a former two-time Chief Minister, is the most bruised in the manner in which the party high command has dealt with the revamp of the 14 district Congress committees, where his faction got just three, down from seven.

Following the revamp that took place early this month, Chandy has been forcing the state Congress President Sudheeran to postpone the high-profile political affairs committee meeting of the party.

On Thursday, Chandy had called for a press meeting in the capital city which was cancelled after he came to know Hariprasad was holding one.

Soon thereafter, Chennithala called on Chandy and held talks with him for a while.