Kerala UDF chief whip flags off BJP 'Unity Run'

Kerala government chief whip P C George is at it again. After repeated barbs that snubbed senior leaders of the Congress party and the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF), George on Sunday put the front in a spot by flagging off a local edition of “Run for Unity,” an event to garner support for Narendra Modi’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel statue project.

 The event managed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Kottayam was part of hundreds of runs organised across the country on Patel’s 63rd death anniversary.

George – leader of Kerala Congress (M), an ally of Congress in the UDF – has been involved in verbal duels with senior Congress leaders leading his party chairman and Finance Minister K M Mani to issue a letter to him seeking restraint in his comments.

His presence at Sunday’s event, where he also sported a saffron shawl and raised T-shirts with Modi’s face for the cameras, invited criticism from Congress leaders and KC(M) is expected to seek an explanation from George in this connection.

“The presence of the chief whip of a government led by the secular Congress party at an event like this is condemnable,” senior Congress leader Pandalam Sudhakaran told reporters. He sought intervention by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala in restraining George’s actions that continued to adversely affect the UDF.

George took critics on by stating that he was not attending a “BJP event”. He said he chose to be at the event because it involved the name of Sardar Patel and would continue to attend similar events even if conducted by extremists.

 The government chief whip has in recent months caused serious concern for the UDF with his controversial takes on internal matters of the Congress and severe criticism of Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan.