Thiruvananthapuram: A section in the Congress feels that it has lost an opportunity in the agitation against Thomas Chandy; the party even lagged behind the BJP which organised a siege of the Secretariat. The party's excuse is that it was busy with Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala’s Padayorukkam. When the BJP had planned the siege weeks ahead, they were apprehensive whether by then Mr Chandy would resign. Though their siege turned out to be a damp squib, the Congress could not organise a decent protest ever since the encroachment surfaced more than three months ago. A prominent Congress leader quipped no wonder the BJP was trying to be the de-facto Opposition.
“Mr Chennithala had gone to Supreme Court against the BJP’s medical college scam which has been just an eyewash," he told DC. "When Mr Chandy challenged the Opposition, a team of UDF leaders went there on a fact-finding mission. But they did not follow it up under the guise of gearing up for Padayorukkam.” Another KPCC leader said only when the solar scam snowballed into a major controversy, they took up the issue. When the special session of the Legislative Assembly was held, the UDF stood united in demanding the ouster of the minister. When former chief minister Oommen Chandy got embroiled in the scam, a section of the Youth Congress leaders who belonged to his ‘A’ group led a series of protests, but senior leaders were busy with Padayorukkam.
“Unfortunately our leaders tried to encash on demand for Thomas Chandy’s ouster only at the fag end of the protests. Look at the way CPI walked away with the credit, so brilliantly. We should hang our heads in shame,” said a KPCC general secretary. However, Mr Chennithala demanded in Thrissur the resignation of CPI MLAs saying they had lost trust in the chief minister.
