Defying the get together ultimatum, senior Congress chief and former union minister Prof KV Thomas on Thursday introduced that he would attend a seminar on Saturday on the ongoing CPI(M) get together congress in Kannur.
Congress had denied permission to Thomas and different get together leaders, together with Shashi Tharoor, to attend a seminar on ‘Centre and state relations.’ The Congress state management and its president Okay Sudhakaran had warned that Thomas can be proven the door if he attended the seminar on the CPI(M) occasion.
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“It was as much as the Congress to decide on me. I’m a member of the AICC (All India Congress Committee) and it’s as much as the AICC to determine on whether or not I ought to be sacked or not. I’m not going wherever. I’ve been with the Congress for at the least 50 years,” Thomas advised the media in Kochi.
The Congress has to date not introduced any motion towards Thomas even because the CPI(M) mentioned that it could give political asylum for him. “He wouldn’t be left deserted. The get together would shield him,” mentioned CPI(M) Kannur district secretary MV Jayarajan on the venue of the get together congress.
Thomas, in the meantime, has not revealed his subsequent political transfer, saying that “I might proceed in Indian politics”.
Referring to the seminar on the CPI(M) occasion, Thomas mentioned: “These two matters — challenges of secularism and Center and state relations — are of utmost significance within the current political situation. In many states, non-Congress governments are ruling now. In all different states, besides in Kerala, Congress has joined palms with different events together with CPI(M). I knowledgeable Sonia Gandhi of my intention to participate within the seminar through which I used to be invited by CPI(M) common secretary Sitaram Yechuri. Later I got here to know from the media that Congress MPs from Kerala urged Sonia Gandhi that permission shouldn’t be given to (Shashi) Tharoor. When I took up the matter once more, I used to be advised to avoid the seminar,” he mentioned.
Thomas has been sulking within the get together after he was denied a seat contest within the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 and the meeting elections of 2021.
Referring to the denial of the seat within the 2019 common elections, Thomas mentioned, “Of the 42 sitting MPs, solely I used to be denied the seat. If my age was the difficulty, many different leaders older than me acquired tickets. How can the get together deny the ticket saying that I had been a parliamentarian for a number of phrases,” he mentioned.
Thomas served as a member of Lok Sabha for 5 phrases and a Union minister of agriculture and public distribution throughout the second United Progressive Alliance (UPA) authorities on the Centre. He represented the Ernakulam constituency within the Lok Sabha all through his phrases within the Parliament. He was elected to the state meeting twice and have become a minister for tourism and fisheries within the Congress authorities from 2001 to 2004.
Thomas gained the meeting elections in 2006 too and later contested the overall elections of 2009 and continued as an MP for the subsequent decade. An AICC member since 1984, he rose to prominence within the get together as a protégé of the late Congress veteran and former chief minister Okay Karunakaran. Later, he acquired nearer to the get together’s nationwide president Sonia Gandhi.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
