Senior Congress leader and former Union minister K.V. Thomas has put his party in an embarrassing situation after he defied the leadership's diktat and attended a CPI(M)-sponsored seminar in Kannur on Saturday. Thomas, who has been at loggerheads with the Congress leadership for quite some time, even went on to shower praise on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and hailed him as the 'pride of Kerala'
Soon after he attended the seminar, Congress's Kerala unit shot off a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi, seeking 'disciplinary action' against the veteran leader. KPCC president and party's Kannur strongman K. Sudhakaran MP alleged that Thomas' decision to attend the event was "pre-planned" and said he would be shown the door.
The seminar on Centre-state relations organised as part of the CPI(M)'s 23rd Party Congress was also attended by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.
AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal said the party's disciplinary committee would meet on Monday to discuss the letter of Kerala unit. “K.V. Thomas is an AICC member. There are certain procedures to expel an AICC member,” he said. Venugopal also targeted Chief Minister Vijayan, alleging that he had vested interests in inviting Thomas to the seminar.
On Saturday, while speaking at the seminar, Vijayan had said Thomas was invited to the CPI(M) seminar as a representative of the Congress party and he is now taking part in the conference also as a Congressman. As Thomas faced expulsion threats from his party leaders, Vijayan hinted that the CPI(M) will give asylum to the veteran Congressman, asserting that "nothing will happen to him".
Earlier, Thomas received a thunderous applause by the Marxist party activists when he arrived at the seminar venue here and said he was attending the programme as a member of a Congress family in a famous fishermen village called Kumbalangi in Kochi.
In his address, Thomas justified his decision to attend the seminar, recalling a speech of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Parliament where he attacked the BJP Government, alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dispensation has launched a frontal attack on the idea of the Indian union of state.
The former Union minister called for a larger alliance of the Congress, Left and the like-minded parties to counter BJP at the national level.
The Congress leader extended whole-hearted support to Vijayan government's ambitious Silver Line semi high speed rail corridor project which is being vehemently opposed by his party.
Thomas said there is no need to oppose a development project just because it was brought by Vijayan.
The Congress sees Thomas' participation at the seminar as a violation of party discipline. Sudhakaran, talking to reporters, accused Thomas of "ditching" the party which made him union minister, state minister, MLA and MP on various occasions and said he would be expelled from the party.
With PTI inputs
