Karunakaran wants to strengthen Cong

NEW DELHI: He may be pushing ninety, but Kerala veteran K Karunakaran still has not lost his trade-mark knack to time his crafty political moves. Just as the UPA-Left stand off over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal is deepening, raising the spectrum of an early mid-term poll, Mr Karunakaran on Thursday announced here his desire to rejoin the Congress, saying he was keen to reinforce the grand old party against the challenges from `regional parties’.

His move comes right when the Congress high command is closely watching the renewed Left-UNPA political tango on a Third Front theme song. Not just that he wants all estranged Congress leaders, including Sharad Pawar, to `return home’ to help the party regain the old glory.

“The Congress is the only party that has a national presence and character. Its weakening has helped the regional parties to hold sway. It is therefore important to strengthen the Congress and efforts should be made to bring back all those including Sharad Pawar to the Congress. I will do everything to strengthen the Congress from inside and outside. I have been in the party at the height of its glory and want to see it regain that position”, said Karunakaran who is on a visit here. However, he was non-committal on whether NCP leadership will take initiative for merging with the Congress.

He justified his ‘temporary’ stay with the NCP by pointing out that “nothing in life is permanent”. He said he won’t blame those state Congress leaders who are trying to block his return-trip as he could understand “the sense of insecurity of some people when they face leaders of influence and calibre...Can you find anyone in the country who does not consider me as a Congress man?”.

Maintaining that he was not depending on the PCC leaders and pointing out that he had never quit the Congress but `only distanced from it’, Mr Karunakaran said: “ I have already conveyed to many senior Congress leaders here what I want to do. I may meet them again. It now for the Congress high command to decide”, said the leader who joined the NCP a couple of years ago.

Mr Karunakaran, who had criticised Ms Sonia Gandhi after his exit, was in all praise for her now. “She has done a good job in leading the party and managing the UPA alliance. Well, there have been some differences in the past when I felt I was not treated well. But I don’t hold it against her. Don’t forget that I had also worked to pursue her to join active politics”.

His move comes when the Congress leadership, preparing for a possible mid-term poll, has started the process of readmitting estranged leaders like V C Shujla, Arvind Netam and is also in touch with Mamata Banerjee.

He seems to be fully aware of the fact that in the event of an election, the Congress will have to be mindful of his captive vote-bank in Kerala given the state’s penchant for deciding electoral victories by razor-thin margins. Perahaps as a reassurance to one and all that he will not bargain with the Left as well, Mr Karunakaran has also made it a point to declare the V S Achuthanandan government as a big failure.