TRIVANDRUM, 2 May 2005 — Ending his seven decades of association with the Congress party, veteran Kerala leader K. Karunakaran left Congress and floated a new outfit yesterday.

At a well-attended workers’ convention in Trichur, he announced the formation of National Congress (Indira). The convention elected his son K. Muraleedharan as its president and gave him powers to appoint state and district level officials.

The new party would work hand in hand with the left parties. Two resolutions adopted by the convention were also in line with the left parties opposing the Congress government’s economic policies.

Eight legislators, who had handed over their resignation letters to Karunakaran, kept away from the convention. They said they were awaiting his instructions on the next move.

The new party needs the support of at least one-third of the 62 Congress legislators to break away from the party without attracting disqualification. Karunakaran was the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader for nearly three decades since 1967.

He has been facing large-scale desertions from his camp since he began dissident activities against the Congress-led government that was elected to power four years ago with a huge majority. The father-son duo, however, claims that the majority of the ordinary workers are with them.

No patch-up packages offered by the Congress high command worked, leading to the split. The party drew a blank in parliamentary elections when former Chief Minister A.K. Antony bought peace with them by offering a Rajya Sabha seat to the father, a Cabinet berth to son, and a Lok Sabha seat to daughter Padmaja Venugopal.

The Congress leadership meanwhile sought to play down Karunakaran’s claim of grassroots support, saying the party was more consolidated now. “There is no ideological base for a split. People of Kerala know very well what is his motive and the reasons for the new party,” Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel said.

“It (new party) was expected when Muraleedharan was expelled. But Karunakaran’s departure was unexpected and it was unfortunate. We have tried our best to avoid that and I spoke to him twice last night,” he told a television channel here.

“We gave Muraleedharan also a long rope. I don’t want to comment on their activities now as they have left the party,” Patel added.

However, he slammed the senior leader’s decision to name the party after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, saying political benefits should not be reaped in the name of the late leader.

Karunakaran’s loyalists from the party committees at various levels who attended the convention cheered when Karunakaran announced the new party. Absent on the dais was Padmaja Venugopal, who suffered a humiliating defeat in the last parliamentary election. Padmaja is with her daughter in Abu Dhabi. She also refused to comment on the developments saying she will speak on her return in a couple of days.

Karunakaran, 87, handed over the party’s tricolor flag, which carries Indira Gandhi’s image on it along with the charkha, to Muraleedharan who handed over the flags to the chairmen of 14 district coordination committees.

The four-time Kerala chief minister, who resigned as member of the upper house of Parliament as a prelude to parting ways, said he still accepted Sonia Gandhi’s leadership. He had also held talks with Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar exploring possibility of a new alignment.

The political resolution also reiterated the party’s commitment to the programs of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance at the national level.

Karunakaran hopes to reach electoral adjustments with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in the elections to the three-tier panchayats (village councils) in September and state assembly a year away.

“This is the real party following the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Indira and Rajiv. We will end the Mafia rule of (Chief Minister Oommen) Chandy,” Karunakaran said.

Some 60 delegates from the Pravasi Congress in UAE also attended the convention.

Muraleedharan said efforts would be made to strengthen the party at the grassroots level and organizational elections would be held soon.

The convention also adopted the constitution of the new party, read by K.P. Kunhikannan, a former state general secretary. The party would be headquartered in the state capital. A surprise presence on the dais was of M.A. John, who claims to be the mentor of Antony and Chandy and a staunch critic of Karunakaran for years. He moved the economic resolution.