Slugfest continues over Cong expels 8 members for BJP deal at Mattathur

Kochi: A day after eight UDF members joined hands with BJP to keep LDF out of power in Mattathur panchayat in Thrissur, political parties engaged in a slugfest accusing rivals of being opportunistic.In the panchayat, UDF has eight members, LDF has 10, NDA has four while the remaining two are indendents, both Congress rebels. While the LDF decided to support one of them, Ouseph K R, for the president post, Congress councillors fielded another independent, Tessy Jose Kallarakkal and secured the votes of three BJP members. Tessy won with 12 votes. The district Congress committee (DCC) later ousted the eight Congress members and the rebels from the party. DCC said the party had issued a whip to the members, but they refuted it and said they did not receive anything.The LDF lost governance in the panchayat after 23 years in power. Meanwhile, the CPM district committee alleged there was an unholy alliance between the Congress and BJP in the local body. They said the alliance was with the knowledge of the DCC. However, DCC president Joseph Tajet refuted it. "We expelled the councillors from the party on Saturday itself. I served the whip to the mandalam president, who was supposed to serve it to the ward members. If the mandalam president withheld it intentionally, we cannot do anything about that. Our policy is that there should not be any alliance with SDPI and BJP. We intimated the policy stand to the party members since we learned that there was a possibility of such an alliance cropping up at the local level. Unfortunately, BJP members backed the president candidate of the Congress. However, the president-elect refused to resign from the post, forcing us to expel the DCC general secretary who paved the way for the developments in Mattathur, the mandalam president and the ward members from the party. We will initiate legal action against the ward members to disqualify them," Tajet said.Meanwhile, Congress ward members who resigned from the party passed the buck to the DCC while claiming they are still with the UDF. "We were planning to field Ouseph for the president election. However, the LDF won over him and announced they would field him. That's why we fielded Tessy and got the support of three BJP members. This issue could have been avoided if the DCC had intervened earlier," said Linto Palliparamban. Congress members reportedly joined hands with the BJP following the intervention of a young BJP ward member.