Congress asks Kerala leaders to keep mum on 'solar scam'

The party high command has asked its senior leaders including Chandy, State Congress president M.M. Hassan, Leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala and V.M. Sudheeran to reach Delhi for a meeting with party Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Friday afternoon.

The Congress party in Kerala over the years has been headed by factiol leaders — with the current and majority faction led by Chandy and the other by Chennithala. In the solar scam, a majority of those to be proceeded against belong to the Chandy faction.

The others med in the case are legislator Hibi Eden, former MLAs Benny Behan, P.C. Vishnuth, Thampanoor Ravi, Lok Sabha members Jose K. Mani and K.C. Venugopal, former union minister Palanimanickam and party office bearer N. Subramanian. All those med in the case belong to the Congress, except for Jose K. Mani of the Kerala Congress (Mani). Addressing reporters in Kottayam on Thursday, Radhakrishn termed the state government’s move as nothing but political vendetta.

The allegations regarding the multi-crore solar energy investment fraud that rocked the Chandy government in 2013 were led by Saritha ir and her live-in partner Biju Radhakrishn. ir had alleged she was sexually exploited by several political leaders. (IANS)