Kerala Congress puts up a United Front for 2016 Assembly polls

KOCHI: Senior leaders say party cadre committed to working together to ensure UDF govt's rule Announcing that the party will contest the Kerala assembly election in 2016 with unity and discipline, senior Congress leaders in state on Thursday sent out a call for unity in the party and in United Democratic Front (UDF).

Addressing a joint press conference, KPCC president VM Sudheeran, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and home minister Ramesh Chennithala said that everyone in the party was committed to work together for ensuring continuity of power for the UDF government. The leaders said that it was they who decided to call a joint conference after visiting party president Sonia Gandhi.

Sudheeran said the discussion Gandhi had with the leaders of other parties in UDF laid emphasis on the unity of the front. He said Congress was on a comeback trail and Kerala has an important place in this trend. Sudheeran also appealed to state Congress leaders to stop making public statements on controversial topics. The three leaders sought to bury the controversy over the letter allegedly written by Ramesh Chennithala to the Congress High Command, about corruption in the state and the tarnished image of chief minister Chandy. "The controversy is over," said Chandy. "Ramesh Chennithala has explained that he has not written such a letter and the Congress central leadership has said that they have not received it."

Oommen Chandy attributed the poor show of UDF in the local body election to regional issues.