Not Interested in Continuing in Post, Says Congress Kerala Chief Mullappally Ramachandran

Owning responsibility for the Congress-led UDF’s drubbing in the Kerala Assembly elections, Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Mullappally Ramachandran said on Saturday he was not interested in continuing in the post. Talking to reporters here, Ramachandran said after the UDF defeat in the polls, he has given a detailed report to Sonia Gandhi narrating all matters related to the elections.

“In that report, I have informed the Congress president that I am not interested in continuing in the post of KPCC president,” he said. Ramachandran said he would continue in the post till an alternative arrangement is made.

Asked about his absence in the first UDF meeting held after the assembly elections on Friday, the senior Congress leader said attending the meeting as KPCC chief was not morally correct since he has requested Sonia Gandhi to accept his resignation from the post. Ramachandran said as the PCC chief he had received full cooperation from Sonia Gandhi and party leader Rahul Gandhi.

“But I am saddened by the electoral defeat of the party. So I am taking the responsibility for the party’s defeat,” he said, adding that he has no intention to put the blame on anyone else. It was reported that the eight-time Parliamentarian has conveyed his willingness to quit but the party leadership in New Delhi asked him to continue till the selection of the new president.

His move came days after the All India Congress Committee nominated senior leader V D Satheesan as the parliamentary party leader in the Assembly, replacing Ramesh Chennithala who had led the party for the last five years in the House. Speculation was rife that after the Leader of the Opposition, the KPCC chief would also be changed as the national leadership was eyeing a total revamp of the party’s state unit from the grassroot level.

After the Congress-led-UDF had to settle for just 41 seats of the total 140 in the April 6 Assembly polls, a group of leaders and workers, especially members of the Youth Congress, have been pressing for a complete makeover of the party’s leadership structure in the state.

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