Blame game begins in Cong's Kerala unit

 The aftershocks of a massive defeat in the Assembly election were evident in the Congress party in Kerala on Friday with familiar blame games being revived in many district units of the party.

Two ministers of the party— K Babu and P K Jayalakshmy— lost from Tripunithura and Mananthavady respectively. Even as Oommen Chandy sought to find solace in the ministers who did end up on the winning side, the figures called out for emergency intervention of the state leadership.

Senior leaders, including K Muraleedharan, who managed to survive the Left storm and win from Vattiyoorkavu, pointed out the party’s failure in connecting with the people. Babu told a television channel that his image as a leader “discarded” by his own party had proved costly. The corruption scam-hit former minister was referring to Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president V M Sudheeran’s reluctance to allot him a seat.

In Aranmula, senior leader and MLA K Sivadasan Nair who was defeated by CPI(M) newcomer Veena George, called for a revamp of the district committee. Padmaja Venugopal, daughter of late chief minister K Karunakaran, who lost in Thrissur to CPI’s V S Sunilkumar also alleged lack of coordination in the campaign. The party has scheduled a meeting on Monday to discuss the results. Meanwhile, supporters of Ramesh Chennithala are learnt to be making moves to make him the Leader of the Opposition, possibly signalling another round of factional tussles.