Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and R.K. Dhawan have submitted a report to party president Sonia Gandhi on the conduct of the elections to the two Rajya Sabha seats of the party in Kerala. Both were sent as observers to the state when times were far from comfortable for the two official party candidates Vayalar Ravi and Thennala Balakrishna Pillai.While both have won the election, rebel candidate Govindan Nair, backed by the senior Congress leader K. Karunakaran, managed to poll 26 votes out of which 21 are said to be of Congress MLAs, including two ministers — Power Minister Kadavur Shivadasan and Health Minister Shankaran.Ironically, the Disciplinary Action Committee, which is the AICC body incharge of action against anti-party activities, has on the team Kerala Chief Minister A.K. Antony, besides Azad and Dhawan.Soon after the election, Antony had felt that the state unit needs a cooling-off period after the crisis. The observers’ report reportedly mentions the statements of all the 62 Congress MLAs, including those who voted for the rebel candidate. The report also mentions other facts about the election, like which senior leader was backing which candidate.At the same time the report does not make recommendation of any kind and leaves the final decision to the party president. Now that the dust has settled over the fight that was put up by Karunakaran, it is becoming clear that no action can be taken directly against him. Though Karunakaran’s public support to the rebel candidate calls for attention, it would have to be backed by evidence to show how he helped Nair.Meanwhile, there is still a strong demand for action against the 21 MLAs who have defied the party whip to vote for Nair. But sources say the action being contemplated is stripping Shivadasan and Shankaran of their ministries. However, that would be an action at the level of the state government and cannot be initiated from the AICC.There is also criticism of the performance of Karunakaran’s son, K. Muraleedharan as the president of KPCC and his failure in convincing Karunakaran to withdraw Nair’s candidature. Anti-Karunakaran factions are demanding Muraleedharan’s resignation while the Congress high command had asked him for a detailed report on the election.
