Will come back strongly, says Kerala's new Congress chief Sudhakaran

Thiruvananthapuram, June 16 Making a strong impact in his opening address, soon after taking over as the new president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, K. Sudhakaran on Wednesday expressed confidence that nothing has been lost for the party in the state.

Incidentally, the name of Sudhakaran was a shocker when the party high command announced his name as all along in Kerala, president of the party and other top posts have always been divided between the major factions and this time the high command ignored the faction leaders Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala.

"I seek the help of each and every Congress worker in the state and please give me your hands and if you give me your hand, I assure you, we will bounce back. At the moment please do not expect to become an office bearer of the party, instead let us all work at the grassroots to build our party. I also assure each one of you that I will see that through my acts or doings I will not create any damage to our party," said Sudhakaran.

Coming down heavily on the recent statement of the CPI-M, hinting that he is an extension of the BJP/RSS, Sudhakaran breathed fire on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

"Everyone knows that it's Vijayan who has taken the help of the BJP/RSS, when he contested. It's the Congress only which has fought the BJP/RSS and no other party," said Sudhakaran.

Outgoing president Mullapally Ramachandran said that everyone knows the second Pinarayi Vijayan government came to power because of a secret understanding between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vijayan.

"Even though we lost the Assembly polls, the difference in the vote percentage between Congress and the CPI-M is only around 0.5 per cent and hence we have no reason to be disappointed. We can and we will come back strongly and for that we all should work together as one," said Ramachandran.

Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan reminded all that Congress party has a different style of functioning and it's not like a party where one person decides everything and the rest claps their hands and follows it.

"Ours is a party where everyone can discuss and debate and we have an array of senior leaders who will be there to take us forward with our new president Sudhakaran. In the past also our party here suffered an even worse electoral reversal (1969). So we can all work together and come back," said Satheesan.