Antony gets support from 'third group'

The on-going rumblings within the Congress party in Kerala took a new twist yesterday with Chief Minister A.K. Antony getting support from the 'Third Group' within the party.

Antony, who has been under intense pressure from the 'I' group led by veteran leader K. Karunakaran is expected to get some much-needed relief from the stance taken yesterday by the Third Group, which may also be a pointer to some kind of polarisation among the warring Congress party factions.

Third Group leader and Culture Minister G. Karthikeyan said here yesterday that it was unfair to hold Antony responsible for all the problems in governance. Karthikeyan bluntly said the 'I' group had no reason to grumble about the government's performance because the government was run by the United Democratic Front (UDF) comprising the Congress party and its allies.

"It is a collective responsibility of all these constituents and no group within the Congress party has a right to single out anyone as the cause of all problems faced by the government," Karthikeyan said.

In what is the strongest bit of support Antony has got in recent times from party colleagues, Karthikeyan said every constituent of a ruling front contributed to the performance of a government and that it was wrong to blame all the rights and wrongs of the government on a single individual.

Karthikeyan also said that it was difficult to believe the 'I' group version that the police force was being used to silence the critics of the government. The culture minister added that that the problems within the Congress party could have been solved by mutual negotiations at home.

The 'I' group members had gone to Delhi this week to present their grouses to Congress party president Sonia Gandhi.

Karthikeyan's tacit support is the brightest thing to have happened to the chief minister in recent days, when he has grappled with the state's financial crisis, the faction wars within the Congress party, and the contentious issue of a forged intelligence document that is believed to have been cooked up by a Congress party MLA to tarnish the image of Tourism Minister K.V. Thomas.