Kodiyeri Balakrishnan wants Sonia Gandhi to intervene, oust M Vincent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Monday asked  Congress president Sonia Gandhi to intervene to get the resignation of Kovalam MLA M. Vincent  who is facing rape charges. In a Facebook post, he  said the Congress high command should make its stand clear on the issue. The Congress leadership should  uphold women safety and justice to the victim, he said. “We can only sympathise with the KPCC president M.M. Hassan  who has become an advocate of the MLA accused of raping a homemaker. It is perhaps for the first time in the history of Indian National Congress in Kerala that a sitting MLA has been arrested on rape charges,” he said.

Mr Kodiyeri criticised Mr Hassan for convening a press conference to declare that Mr Vincent need not resign. “It is a dark moment in the history of the state,” he said and added that his  stand will be used by his rivals within the party to portray him as protector of rapists. The Congress should not have hit such a low. He said  Mr Hassan's statement that the case  was politically motivated was  baseless. The police had acted on the complaint filed by the woman. By making such statements, Mr  Hassan was lowering the status of KPCC president’s post, he said.