Sudheeran not to step down as KPCC chief

Thiruvananthapuram: Congress' Kerala unit president V.M.Sudheeran on Monday said that there was no reason for him to step down from his post in view of the poll battering that his party and the UDF suffered at the assembly polls.

"I don't think there is any reason for my stepping down as the state president of the Congress party. Look, Congress in the past also has lost the polls," said Sudheeran after the first meeting of the party executive following the poll result where the Congress-led United Democratic Front suffered one of its worst-ever electoral reverses being reduced to 47 seats in the 140-member assembly.

Ahead of the polls, the troika of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Sudheeran and state Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala had said that they would be equally responsible, irrespective of the poll outcome.

Chandy meanwhile has already expressed his intention to not be in the running for the post of the leader of the opposition, as he takes responsibility for the mauling that the party received at the polls.

But Sudheeran said: "No decision has been arrived on the leader of opposition. The decision would be made in consultation with the party high command and in concurrence with the elected Congress legislators, so its early to say if Chandy is not going to be the leader of opposition."

The meeting also decided to hold a two-day camp of the executive on June 4-5, where all the 87 candidates who contested the polls on the Congress ticket would be asked to speak on what happened.

The Congress could win just 22 seats.