Coming back not temporary: Karunakaran

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 9 (UNI) Veteran leader K Karunakaran, who reached Indira Bhavan, headquarters of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, after a gap of more than two years, today said his coming back was not temporary and expressed happiness in seeing his old party colleagues.

All the Congress workers will meet at Ernakulam on February one to give a new boost to the party, said Mr Karunakaran, who quit the Congress in 2005 and formed the Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran), which later merged with the Nationalist Congress Party, said.

''We all will become one at Ernakulam. The meeting will proclaim that there is no groupism in the Congress,'' he told reporters here.

Stating that all Congress workers should go forward with unity, he stressed that the destabilising forces should be isolated from the party.

The Congress was the only party that could lead the nation and those who loved the country should join the party. The other parties should accept the 'Congress line' and the Congress should not accept all that the other political parties said. The Congress workers should have the strength to fight its opponents, Mr Karunakaran said.

Asked how he felt on coming back to the ancestral home, he said ''the happiness and the expectations are not that small when I entered the Indira Bhavan.'' Regarding absence of certain leaders, he said those with similar thoughts and who worked with unity may sometimes find it difficult to attend some functions under certain circumstances.

Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly Oommen Chandy, who had opposed Mr Karunakarn's rejoining the Congress, was not present.

Mr Karunakaran had come to the KPCC office to inaugurate the INTUC meeting. It was the first function that the veteran leader attended after he rejoined the Congress.

Party workers raised slogans and greeted Mr Karunakaran when he reached Indira Bhavan.

Pradesh Congress president Ramesh Chennithala and other leaders welcomed the veteran leader.

Expressing happiness, Mr Chennithala said the rejoining of Mr Karunankaran would strengthen the party.

UNI PN ROY SY RAI1341