Karunakaran ditched us all, says son

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Dejected by former Kerala chief minister K. Karunakaran's decision to return to the Congress party, his son and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state president K. Muraleedharan on Saturday lambasted him for the first time in public, saying the veteran leader had ditched his supporters.

"I asked him and all those leaders with Karunakaran why they were returning to the Congress. Till date I have not got the answer. We are really upset because Karunakaran ditched us all. His going will not be a loss for the NCP," Muraleedharan said.

He said after a hurriedly called NCP executive meeting.

Karunakaran on Friday called a meeting of his supporters and announced he was returning to the Congress and that a formal decision would be announced at a convention next week.

"Karunakaran would be humiliated in the Congress," Muraleedharan said.

"I only wish that he tells us why he wants to return to the Congress. I am told he has been offered the governor's post or he is to be made a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee. If this was his aim, why did he make all of us look like fools for three years? I will not be with Karunakaran in his days ahead."

Muraleedharan became the state NCP president after Karunakaran merged his Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran with the NCP last year. The veteran leader had formed DIC-K two years back after quitting the Congress.