Himachal assembly by-polls: Congress announces candidates for 3 seats
The by-polls in six Assembly constituencies in the state are scheduled to be held on June 1 along with the Lok Sabha elections.
With Congress MLA V T Balram’s Facebook post on communist icon and leader of the Opposition in the first Lok Sabha AK Gopalan (AKG) triggering a controversy, the Congress came out in open, distancing itself from the young legislator’s comment.
Disowning V T Balram’s comment against communist stalwart, Opposition leader and senior Congress Ramesh Chennithala on Sunday said Congress will not accept picturing badly the first opposition leader of the Lok Sabha.
“One cannot agree with such statements. Congress will not accept picturing the communist icon AKG,who was the first Opposition leader of the LokSabha badly,” Ramesh wrote in a Facebook post. Distancing from Balram’s views, KPCC president MM Hassan said that the comment made by Balram was wrong and it is not the opinion of the party.
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“AKG is a man who is respected by all. Making such a comment against AKG was not right. It is not the opinion of the Congress,” Hassan said Coming out against Balram’s statement, former chief minister Oommen Chandy said, “Balram’s statement has crossed limits. He shouldn’t have said that.” KPCC vice president VD Satheesan said that Congress does not share Balram’s comments.
Lashing out at Balram over his controversial comments on AK Gopalan, chief minister pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday said that the MLA’s comments are a lack of discernment and mark of stupidity.
“Making such a disparaging comments on AKG hurts the people of India, especially the farmers and labour communities. Even more pathetic is the condition of the party that has no one with conscience who can point it out to the unintelligent MLA,” Chief minister Vijayan wrote in a Facebook post.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Balram, a two-time MLA from Thrithala in Palakkad district, alleged that that AK Gopalan was a pedophile who married a 13-year-old girl.
Balram said AKG’s wife Susheela was only 22 at the time of the couple’s marriage. According to Balram, it is said the marriage was the culmination of a decade-long courtship. Then one can guess the age of Susheela Gopalan at the time, he said.
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