Thiruvananthapuram: Nanabhau Patole, a Congress leader from Maharashtra, has been appointed as AICC observer for Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency following Dr Shashi Tharoor’s complaint against lukewarm local leaders.
Top Congress brass, including the candidate, had rubbished the reports of lack of coordination and said everything was fine.
Mr Patole who is the national president of the Karshaka Congress was a candidate taking on BJP heavyweight Nitin Gadk-ari in Nagpur, where polling was over on Thursday.
His appointment came within a few hours of KPCC president Mulla-ppally Ramachandran’s statement that he was not completely satisfied with the campaigning for Dr Tharoor.
Mr Patole will hold a special meeting at Indira Bhavan to take stock of the situation. A senior leader said AICC wanted to prevent BJP opening account here under any circumstances.
“His arrival shows that we are pretty serious on the allegations raised by Dr Tharoor. A.K. Antony has been telling state leaders that there is no point in winning 19 seats and losing Thiruvananthapuram to BJP,” he told DC.
AICC general secretary in-charge of Kerala, Mukul Wasnik, also called a meeting of all the Lok Sabha in-charges on Sunday morning at Indira Bhavan.
“The news that Dr Tharoor had complained to the AICC leadership is baseless. It is nothing but a political conspiracy,” said Mr Ramachandran.
Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala said it was the BJP propaganda. He also maintained that Dr Tharoor had not complained.
“Dr Tharoor will romp home. Kummanam will not win. I am giving special emphasis on Dr Tharoor’s campaigning,” he said.
Ever since there have been complaints against the election committee office bearers and a local MLA, Mr Chennithala was coordinating the campaigning of Dr Tharoor.
There has been a whispering campaign by the BJP camp against Dr Tharoor.
Senior leader Oommen Chandy had said on Friday that there was no lax in the campaigning here.
Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading.
