Rumblings in Cong in Kerala grow shrill

Thiruvananthapuram, May 5: Post-election acrimony in the

unit of

assumed a shrill pitch today with KPCC president V M Sudheeran hitting out at prominent woman leader Shanimol Usman for targeting him after she was openly censured for levelling charges against Union minister K C Venugopal.

In a letter to Sudheeran, Shanimol accused him of showing intolerance to criticism, forgetting the fact that he himself had often criticised his seniors, including Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Rubbishing the contents of the letter as "baseless and exaggerated", Sudheeran said Shanimol appeared to be acting as a "pawn" in the hands of those annoyed by his firm position on the issue of renewal of licences to over 400 liquor bars in the state.

He said the whole thing smacked of a conspiracy against him and announced a three-member party committee to probe the entire aspects of the development. The KPCC chief said Shanimol was also frustrated over failure to get a ticket in the elections.

Defending the decision to censure her, he said that was the majority view of the KPCC executive. Shanimol was censured by the KPCC executive last month for making adverse comments against Venugopal, who was the Congress candidate in Alappuzha Lok Sabha seat. She had demanded an inquiry by a party commission into the alleged nexus between Venugopal and solar case accused Saritha Nair.

Venugopal had refuted the allegation as "totally unfounded."

PTI