Thiruvananthapuram: Shanimol Usman, who was defeated in Alappuzha, has pointed fingers at a senior CWC member for playing spoilsport and kept off the meetings of the KPCC office-bearers and political affairs committee here on Tuesday. She told the KPCC leadership that the CWC member, a former MP from Alappuzha and number two in the hierarchy in Delhi, had worked against her with the help of a former DCC president.
Shanimol had conveyed her resentment to KPCC president Mullapally Ramachandran on Monday ahead of the meetings which were called to discuss the party's defeat in Alappuzha. She said that if she attends the meetings she would speak against the the powerful leader, who is opposed to her because she had raised his role in the solar scam during former KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran's tenure.
Though she has not given a written complaint to the KPCC, Mullapally has taken it seriously. A leader close to Shanimol told DC that the AICC leader had held a road show in Cherthala with the help of a former Assembly candidate from there in the absence of Shanimol. Though he pumped in Rs 75 lakh for the campaign in Alappuzha, it was used against Shanimol's prospects," he said.
She suffered setbacks, especially in two Assembly segments, Cherthala and Haripad, though she led in other five Assembly segments, Aroor, Alappuzha, Ambalapuzha, Kayamkulam and Karunagapally. During the 2016 Assembly elections, the winning margin of CPI candidate P. Thilothaman was over 7, 000 votes. But A. M. Ariff's lead increased by over 16,800 votes now. In 2016, only Haripad Assembly segment favoured the Congress from where Ramesh Chennithala won. Mullapally said a sub-committee was being formed to assess the reasons for the poll debacle.
"When I said UDF will sweep the Lok Sabha elections, it included Alappuzha too. The members of the sub-committee to probe the debacle will be announced soon," said Mullapally.
