Congress in Kerala may witness repercussions of party president's links with cheating case accused

The acquaintance of Kerala PCC president K Sudhakaran with a fake antique merchant seems to have come as a shot in the arm for the Congress leaders opposed to him.

While a section in the Congress started taking up the issue, the party is also unable to attack the left-front government in Kerala over the nexus of many police officers with the fraudster.

Congress MP from Kerala Benny Behnan said on Tuesday that political party leaders should be more cautions while dealing with such person.

The links of Sudhakaran with fake antique seller Monson Chacko alias Monson Mavingal came out at a time when the Congress party in Kerala is witnessing resentment against Sudhakaran's leadership. Incidentally, AICC general secretary in charge of Kerala Tariq Anwar was also in the state when the links of Sudhakaran with the cheating case accused came out.

Many senior Congress leaders had openly expressed their resentment against the style of function of the party's new state leadership comprising Sudhakaran and leader of opposition V D Satheesan. But the main resentment was learnt to be against Sudhakaran.

Sudhakaran not only denied allegation of a cheated person that Mavungal collected money from him in the presence of Sudhakaran, but also put up a political defensive by alleging that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan could be playing a role in the allegations against him. With the picture of Sudhakaran with Mavungal coming out, he had to admit his acquaintance with the fraudster, but maintained that he was unaware of his shady dealings.

Congress sources said that the party was now in a dilemma as it could not raise the Mavungal issue against the government even as his nexus with many senior police officers and the picture of a minister with Mavungal came out. There were also allegations of nexus of some other ministers with Mavungal.

With Congress leader Rahul Gandhi coming down to Wayanad for a one-day visit to his constituency Wayanad on Wednesday the chances of the anti-Sudhakaran camps raising the issue overtly and covertly was very high.

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