Thiruvananthapuram: Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will be leading the Opposition Congress led UDF battle in the crucial assembly polls during April-May this year in Kerala.
A 10-member Election Management and Strategy committee, with Chandy as its Chairman, has been approved by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and it would come into effect immediately, an AICC press release said on Tuesday.
The committee, which includes KPCC President Mullapally Ramachandran, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, AICC Organisational secretary, K C Venugopal and AICC Secretary in charge of Kerala Tariq Anwar, will meet frequently to discuss matters related to electioneering, co-ordination and formulation of election strategies, the release said.
MPs K Muraleedharan, K Sudhakaran, Kodikunnil Suresh and Shashi Tharoor , besides former KPCC president, V M Sudheeran, are the other members of the committee.
Chandy (77), along with CWC member A K Antony, Ramesh Chennithala and Mullapally Ramachandran, had held discussions with Sonia Gandhi and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi at Delhi on Monday.
Antony had later said the chief ministerial candidate would be announced after the front’s “victory”.
The leaders later told media personnel that they would face the polls unitedly and the only agenda was to ensure that the party and the front come out with flying colours.
Chandy was showered with rose petals and given a warm welcome by party workers at the airport here on his return late last night from Delhi.
The Indian Union Muslim League and RSP, both coalition partners of the front, had come out openly after UDF’s lacklustre performance in the recent local body polls and suggested that Chandy be brought back to the forefront and given more responsibility.
Meanwhile, KPCC President Mullappally Ramachandran said on Tuesday said he would foray into the electoral arena in the polls if the party asked him to do so
“I have always obeyed whatever the party says.
If the party asks me to contest, I will do so.Till today I have not gone beyond what the party has said”, he told reporters at the airport here soon after he returned from Delhi after crucial meetings with the party high command.
“As far as I am concerned, whatever decision the AICC takes, I will respect it… I will shoulder whatever responsibilities the party entrusts me with” he said when asked if he would throw in his hat in the coming polls.
On reports that he would contest from Kalpetta in Wayanad, the KPCC chief said no such decision had been taken.
A collective leadership of the party– including Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala, will lead the Congress in the elections, he said.
AICC Organisational secretary K C Venugopal said in Delhi that Chandy and Chennithala would jointly lead the party campaign in the polls.
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