By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Continuing his tirade against the Congress leadership in the state, Senior Congress leader and former KPCC chief V M Sudheeran on Wednesday said the decision to gift the Rajya Sabha seat to Kerala Congress (M) was a Himalayan blunder and it would weaken the effort of AICC president Rahul Gandhi to strengthen the UPA front ahead of the 2019 Parliament elections.

The decision virtually deprived the UPA of one seat as a front like KC (M) which bargain with multiple fronts at a time can’t be treated as a trusted ally in Kerala. There is no guarantee that the KC (M) would not switch to the NDA camp if a situation arises, he said .

Dealing a body blow to the state leadership, he said former chief minister Oommen Chandy always gave him cold shoulder when he was the KPCC president. Chandy deliberately tried to defeat and belittle Jana Raksha Yathra and Jana Paksha Yathra led by him, Sudheeran alleged adding it was Chandy's ego and jealous attitude that forced him to take the extreme step of shutting down 730 bars in the state, although Sudheeran welcomed the move.

He also said it was the group managers who ensured the defeat of the party in the last assembly elections. Commenting on the violation of party discipline by expressing his opinion in public, he said he has mooted that principle in the party forum when he was the PCC chief in Kerala. But the present KPCC chief, MM Hassan, had countered it by calling a press meet in the KPCC headquarters without the permission of the party, he said.

The Congress party is in the crisis in Kerala and the group managers are responsible for the plight of the party. The functioning of the opposition in the state is also not satisfactory as it had been keeping a studied silence in many subjects including Kovalam palace row and big ticket encroachment cases in the state, he said.