Sonia will choose Chief Minister, says Azad

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, APRIL 30. Contrasting the Karunakaran group's oft-repeated claim that in the event of a UDF victory, the Chief Minister would be chosen by the newly-elected Congress MLAs, the AICC general secretary, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, has said that it would be the party president who would pick the Chief Minister.

Mr. Azad, who is in charge of the Congress affairs in Kerala, said at a Meet-the-Press programme here on Monday that it would be up to Ms. Sonia Gandhi to decide who the Congress Chief Minister would be.

Asked to reconfirm his statement in the wake of the remarks by Congress leaders like Mr. K. Karunakaran that it would be the MLAs who would elect the next head of the Government, Mr. Azad said: ``The MLAs would be consulted.''

The remark of Mr. Azad, who will have a big say in the selection of the Chief Minister as the AICC pointsman in Kerala, gives an inkling of the party high command's thinking.

Asked if there was an understanding in the party that if Mr. A. K. Antony was chosen Chief Minister, Mr. Karunakaran's son would be made the KPCC president, Mr. Azad hinted that there was such an understanding. ``Both posts would not go to the same side,'' he said.

Mr. Azad, when asked if any action would be taken by the party against Mr. Karunakaran in the event of a UDF victory, for torpedoing the party chances by his public revolt, said there was no question of defeat. The party had not taken seriously Mr. Karunakaran's outbursts against Mrs. Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Antony, as well as the burning of the effigy of Mr. Azad himself by the `I' group. He dismissed them as part of the feud in the `Congress family.'

He denied there was any understanding between the BJP and the UDF. Asked why the Congress was keeping mum on the Tehelka expose at the campaign meetings, he said it was because the BJP was not a force to reckon with in Kerala.

He felt that instead of rejecting Ms. Jayalalitha's nomination, the Election Commission should have left it to the voters of Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Azad promised that if the UDF comes to power, Kerala would be made an information technology giant like Karnataka. He alleged that during the LDF rule, while the CPI(M) had prospered, the State's economy had declined.

He wanted the people of the State to wait for one more week before the UDF started bringing the economy back from the `intensive care unit' and made to walk.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : 'Remote control' used to steal power
Next     : Kerala to be made IT destination: Antony