Thiruvananthapuram, May 29
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Mullappally Ramachandran on Saturday asked the media here not to spread baseless news about him and the Congress.
Ramachandran said as soon as the recent Assembly poll results came out and the United Democratic Front (UDF) did not perform well, he submitted a detailed report to All India Congress Committee (AICC) President, Sonia Gandhi.
"We were not able to perform well in the recent state Assembly elections and I have taken full responsibility for the party's failure. Along with my report I had informed Congress President Sonia Gandhi of stepping down as the party's Kerala unit President. I had mentioned that I will remain as the state unit President till alternate arrangements are made and it should happen at the earliest. During my tenure, I received full support of Sonia Gandhi and unconditional support from Rahul Gandhi as well," Ramachandran added.
In the past few days the media here was speaking of a new letter written by Ramachandran to Sonia Gandhi about his inability to work as the party was divided among factions in the state.
"Let me make things clear, the so called second letter of mine is not at all true. I have written no such letter at all. Moreover the media here on Friday was talking about me not attending the first UDF meeting after the recent state Assembly elections. I attended such meetings by virtue of being the state Congress President. Since I have already informed about my decision to quit as the party's state unit President, it would not be correct on my part both politically and morally to take part and therefore, I did not," said Ramachandran, a former Union Home Minister during the UPA regime.
"Then there was a factually incorrect report that I had boycotted the Ashok Chavan committee looking into the defeat of the party. I told Chavan that I will be sending the copy of the report that I had sent to AICC President and I don't have anything more to add or take back from that report and this can be considered as my statement," he added.
He told the media that their assessment of affairs of the Congress in the state was totally wrong.
"There is nothing like what you (media) people are now reporting about the factionalism in the party's state unit. It's nothing like what you are saying," said Ramachandran.
Incidentally it was under Ramachandran that the Congress-led UDF had won 19 out of the 20 Lok Sabha seats but he had then said 'success has many fathers, failure is an orphan'.
During the recent Assembly polls, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan created history in the state when he led the party to a second consecutive win by winning 99 seats in the 140-member Kerala Assembly with the UDF only managing 41 seats.
Outgoing Leader of Opposition, Ramesh Chennithala, despite getting the support of the majority Congress Legislators was replaced with V.D.Satheesan by the party high command and now all eyes are on who would be the new party state unit President.
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