Congress support to UF to stay, says Karunakaran

The question of withdrawing support to the United Front government is not before the Congress at present, senior Congress Working Committee member K Karunakaran said in New Delhi on Thursday.

However, people are not happy with the government's performance and therefore there are also demands for withdrawal of support among Congress persons, he told mediapersons.

Even constituents of the United Front are unhappy with the performance of the government, he pointed out.

Karunakaran said the Congress Parliamentary Party executive in its meeting in New Delhi on Friday would express its views on the support to the United Front government. However, policy matters would be decided by the Congress Working Committee, he added.

He said there should be consultations between the prime minister and the Congress president on major policy matters it was up to the Congress president to decide as to who should represent the party if he was unable to go for such discussions, he said.

Karunakaran said it was up to the government to decide about pre-budget consultations with the Congress. If there were no consultations there would be less responsibility to support all proposals, he said.

He said the Congress would win the elections in Punjab. He appealed to various parties to ensure that the Bharatiya Janata Party-Akali Dal (Badal) alliance was defeated as this was in the best interests of the state.

Karunakaran appealed to the Kerala government to withdraw its decision to increase the power tariff as this would adversely affect the consumers, farmers, and industry. The state government should concentrate on generating more power by clearing power projects instead of increasing the electricity rates, he said.

Now the state government could clear power projects up to 500 mw capacity. Several project proposals were pending clearance, he pointed out.

Prices of essential commodities were also rising and therefore it required the government's immediate attention, he said.

Meanwhile, Communist Party of India-Marxist General secretary H S Surjeet and several Congress leaders held discussions with Karunakaran during the day on Thursday.

UNI