New Delhi, July 23: Veteran Congress leader K Karunakaran, who has openly demanded removal of A K Antony as Chief Minister, tonight had a 40-minute meeting with party president Sonia Gandhi. After the meeting, he refused to disclose to reporters whether the leadership issue figured during the meeting while political secretary to Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, also sidestepped saying it was an internal matter of the party. Patel, who is in charge of party affairs in Kerala, said there was no question of change of leadership and also no crisis in the state unit. Karunakaran said his meeting with the Congress president was "always satisfactory". He attacked the Chief Minister for his anti-minority statement saying Antony's action was "very, very unfortunate" and he should withdraw it.
Patel along with AICC General Secretary R K Dhawan came to Karunakaran's residence soon after the Kerala leaders's meeting with Gandhi.

Asked whether Kerala needed a better leader than Antony, he said any Keralite could become the chief minister.


To a query whether Kerala government needed a major surgery, he said "without surgery, let us try to see whether we can cure it with drugs".


Asked whether his brinkmanship could lead to a split in the party, he said he would be the "last person to split the party for my sake. I have been chief minister four times. One should not be over-ambitious. I rule out anything on account of me".

Bureau Report