Representative image of a police officer.
Credit: iStock Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: The bogus voter identity card allegation against the Youth Congress in Kerala has put the party in a tight spot.
While the police have summoned the newly elected state president of Youth Congress Rahul Mankootathil for quizzing on Saturday, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) is forming a panel for internal probe.
Even as CPM is using this opportunity to attack the Grand Old Party, Congress state leadership is not outrightly rejecting the allegation. KPCC president K Sudhakaran said that if any party worker was found to be involved in malpractice, action would be taken against them.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had even stated that the allegations of faking election identity cards was a serious offense against the nation.
Though Mankootathil initially maintained that it was a politically motivated allegation, the arrest of four persons who were close to him had put him on the defensive. Moreover, the accused were also using Mankoothathil's car. Several bogus voter identity cards were also recovered from them.
Hence, the Congress camps were learnt to be keeping fingers crossed as Mankootathil is being summoned for quizzing. He has been a strong face of the Congress in debates, especially in discussions on TV channels. He also has a clean image.
Mankootathil was recently elected as Youth Congress state president in an organisation election marked with group fights. Hence, the bogus identity card allegation was learnt to have come out owing to the infights in the party.
Mankootathil is considered to be from the Congress 'A' group that was earlier headed by former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who died recently.