Congress and UDF betrayed us, says Johnny Nelloor

KOCHI: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and the UDF betrayed us after offering the Angamaly assembly seat, said Kerala Congress Jacob Group chairman Johnny Nelloor. The chief minister met me before the preparations for the polls started.  He asked me to contest in Angamaly and according to that I had started preparations for it. Talking to the media, he said the chief minister insulted him by breaking his word.      

Nelloor said that he had gone to KPCC headquarters before the chief minister, KPCC chief and others left for Delhi. I got a bad approach from them. The chief minister had promised the Angamaly seat and said the party’s demand was reasonable. But they betrayed us and it was one of the largest meanness shown to us, he said.  

Insulted by the congress, we don’t intend to go for a political exile. The party will move forward by solving the problems. A leadership meet will be convened later today to discuss the matters and then a final decision would be announced. A conspiracy was hatched to ruin the party. Kerala Congress had taken a strong stand at a time when corruption allegations were levelled against the government. It was we who supported them even when the congress leaders distanced. This is a setback for our honesty, he said.

I and Minister Anoop Jacob had called on Sonia Gandhi when she came to Kottayam even before the discussion of seats started. We convinced her the bad incident the party suffered in 2011. A letterpointing it was given to many including the UDF convenor. We demanded four seats in the polls.

We had asked Angamaly, Piravom, Kuttanand and Udumbanchola seats as order of priority. Some campaigned that Angamaly was not given as there is no chance of winning the seat. There was also an attempt to say that I don’t have the support of the sabha, he said.

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