Congress blasts SNDP for excluding CM from event

Thiruvanthapuram, Dec 13:  The Congress on Sunday hit out at the SNDP for first inviting and then excluding Chief Minister Oomen Chandy from a function on Tuesday that Prime Minister rendra Modi will attend. Both the Congress and the Left suspect a “commul agenda” behind the exclusion of Chandy from the event being organised by SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellapalli tesan. SNDP Yogam is an association of the backward Ezhava community. tesan last week floated a new political party, which is set to ally with the Bharatiya Jata Party. The BJP said protocols were not required to be observed at the “private function”.  Modi will fly to Kollam to unveil the statue of the late R. Sankar, who was a Congress leader, a former chief minister and a leader of Sree raya Dhama Paripala (SNDP) Yogam. State Congress president V.M. Sudheeran blames the PMO for inflicting “shame to the state of Kerala”. “One will have to find out if the PMO had a role in this episode. Also a commul agenda cannot be ignored as this is a shame to the state of Kerala when its CM has been asked to stay away,” Sudheeran told reporters here on Sunday. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said in Delhi that excluding the chief minister was an insult to the constitution. Marxist leader and former chief minister V.S. Achuthandan said tesan was trying to erect the statue of an ‘RSS Sankar’ in Kollam. M.A. Baby, another leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, said the chief minister’s soft response to the SNDP reflected his incapacity to stand up to Sangh Parivar. (IANS)