Kozhikode (Kerala), Sep 13 (IANS) Former Kerala chief minister and leader of opposition Oommen Chandy Wednesday extended an open invitation to all those deserting the Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran (DIC-K) of veteran leader K. Karunakaran.
"The Congress party will receive with both hands all former Congress leaders who are leaving the DIC-K. All of them have the Congress culture," Chandy told reporters.
"How can anyone who loves Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi join hands with Sharad Pawar?" he asked.
He was referring to the decision of Karunakaran, who broke away from the Congress to form the DIC-K, to join hands with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and move towards merger of the two parties.
According to Pawar, the merger would take place later this month.
The decision had a ripple effect with some prominent leaders announcing they would return to the Congress.
Amongst them was Karunakaran's close aide P. Sankaran, who said he and his supporters would go back to the "parent party".
"DIC-K was formed in May last year on grounds that there was no democracy in the Congress. I am sad to say that there was not a single discussion in DIC-K about the merger plans with NCP. We just cannot accept the decision to merge DIC-K with NCP, so we are returning to our parent party," said Sankaran.
Sankaran was among the nine Congress legislators who resigned from the party in May last year to join the DIC-K.
The buzz is seven of the nine, except for Maleth Sarala Devi and M.P. Gangadharan, are on their way out. Sankaran is the first to announce the decision publicly.