Kerala’s Cong HQ Put Up for Sale on OLX After KC(M) Given RS Seat

The headquarters of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) in Thiruvananthapuram.

(Photo: The News Minute)

The headquarters of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) in Thiruvananthapuram was put up for 'sale' on OLX on 9 June, The News Minute reported.

Known as Indira Bhavan, the party headquarters has been put up for sale by a user named Aniesh who pegged the property price at Rs 10,000, TNM reported. In the OLX post, the user describes the layout, says the office is in a ‘ready to move’ condition and requests buyers to contact the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) or KC(M) to seal the deal, the report adds

(Photo: The News Minute)

OLX Post Act of Revenge for RS Seat?

The News Minute reports that the post seemed to be an act of retaliation to the Congress’ 7 June decision to "gift” the Rajya Sabha seat, which fell vacant with the retirement of senior party leader PJ Kurien, to Kerala Congress (M).

The Congress was earlier looking to re-nominate former Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien, but dropped the plan after facing stiff opposition. The decision was part of the UDF formula to bring back the miffed KC-M, which broke away from the front two-years ago over differences with the Congress on the 'Bar scam' in which KC-M supremo and former finance minister KM Mani is facing bribery allegations, PTI reported.

The move was heavily criticised by several Congress leaders, many of them who made clear their dissent to senior leaders.

In an open letter to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, which was endorsed by Congress MLAs including VT Balram, Shafi Parambil, Hibi Eden, Roji M John, KS Sabarinadhan and Anil Akkara, the party members wrote:

I do express my utmost disappointment and strongest protest on the Kerala leaders’ decision to give away our Rajya Sabha seat to the Kerala Congress(M) party, which is not even a constituent of the UDF in Kerala as of now. This has betrayed the sentiments of the ordinary Congress workers in Kerala and is a huge humiliation to their spirit. I, therefore urge you to reconsider this catastrophic decision at the earliest and field a Congress candidate itself for the ensuing election. 

Part of the letter written by the six MLAs to Rahul Gandhi

The report adds that former Congress state pesident VM Sudheeran also called this move a "suicidal strategy" and said: "The need of the hour is to strengthen the Congress and the UDF will strengthen only if the Congress is strong. This gifting of seat to Mani will in no way be of any help as Congressmen will not be happy at all. Even Mani knows that he has no right to this seat.”

However, with this move, it appears that KC(M) will soon formally return to the Congress-led UDF. The party had withdrawn from the UDF after the 2016 Assembly elections, The News Minute reports.

(With inputs from PTI and The News Minute)