Karunakaran wants Cong to bring back senior leaders

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 2 (UNI) Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader K Karunakaran today asked the Congress leadership to take the initiative to bring back senior leaders, including Union Minister Sharad Pawar, who had deserted the party, to its fold to fight communal forces in the country.

Talking to reporters here, he said the Congress would find it difficult to move forward with the current political arrangement, especially after the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. There were several leaders who had strong political roots at the regional level and their services should be utilised to block the re-emergence of communal forces, he added.

Mr Karunakaran had indicated last week that he would not mind returning to the Congress, almost two years after he left it to form the Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran (DIC-K). Clarifying this, the leader said the media had not quoted him correctly and what he meant was that the Congress should bring the old timers into the party to strengthen it against the rising communal forces in the country.

He had visited the national capital last week after two years and held talks with disgruntled Congressmen Natwar Singh and Bhajan Lal and Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh.

Noting that the Congress was declining because of the new leadership, Mr Karunakaran stressed that he was not for going back to the Congress of Ramesh Chennithala and Oommen Chandy.

At the moment, the Congress leadership would not be able to tackle the problems of communalism and terrorism, Mr Karunakaran said and added it was in this circumstance that the Congress leadership should think of bringing back the leaders who had deserted it.

Stressing that no decision had been taken for the merger of the NCP with the Congress, he said the NCP would ally with all secular forces in the country to keep the communal forces at bay. ''The time for thinking of a merger has not come yet,'' he said.

Asked if Congress President Sonia Gandhi should quit from the leadership, he said it was up to her to take a decision.

Mr Karunakaran also said there was no difference with his son K Muraleedharan, who was now leading the NCP in the state.

UNI