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Congress on a sticky wicket over Rahul Mamkootathil's right to attend Assembly sessionThe MLA had been suspended from the party last month in view of allegations of misconduct towards women.
Arjun Raghunath
Last Updated IST
<div class="paragraphs"><p>Rahul Mamkootathil was suspended from the party last month.&nbsp;</p></div>

Rahul Mamkootathil was suspended from the party last month. 

Credit: X

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress in Kerala seems to be on a sticky wicket on the approach towards Rahul Mamkootathil MLA as the Assembly session is set to begin on September 15.

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Already opposition leader V D Satheesan, who took a high moral stand while announcing the suspension of Mamkootathil from the party last month in view of allegations of misconduct towards women, has been coming under cyber attack even from pro-Congress cyber forums.

While a section in the party is of the view that Mamkootathil should be asked to keep off from the Assembly, another section in the party, including some senior leaders, is backing the young MLA especially since no women so far filed any complaint against him.

A section in the party is of the opinion that Mamkootathil's presence in the Assembly could be used by the ruling front MLAs in weakening the opposition's attack against the government over a host of issues. 

However, those backing Mamkootathil point out that there are many ruling front MLAs who face sexual assault cases, whereas no women so far filed any complaint against Mamkootathil.

Satheesan was also being overtly and covertly attacked by party colleagues for attending the Onam feast organised by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan amidst the row over police assault on a Youth Congress local leader.

Former Kerala PCC president K Sudhakaran openly flayed Satheesan over it even as the latter clarified that the incident came to light only after the event. 

The cyber attack against Satheesan over the issue is also widely believed to be a repercussion of his stand against Mamkootathil.

Even as the police crime branch registered a case against Mamkootathil and approached the women, including an actress, who raised sexual misconduct allegations against the first time MLA, all of them were learnt to have maintained that they did not want to  pursue legal action. This seems to have put the police team too in a dilemma.

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(Published 10 September 2025, 19:09 IST)