Infighting within Kerala NCP costs general secretary his post

State president T.P. Peethambaran removed Razaq Moulavi as general secretary of the party citing indiscipline.

Infighting within the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Kerala came to a head on Saturday with State president T.P. Peethambaran removing Razaq Moulavi as general secretary of the party citing indiscipline. Soon after the assembly elections, Mr. Peethambaran made a statement that smacked of a soft stance towards Mani C Kappan, who left the party and the Left front to contest and win the Pala assembly seat. He asked the party to ask itself if it was right to cause the exit of Mr. Kappan from the front ahead of the polls. Mr. Moulavi criticised the statement terming it as Mr. Peethambaran’s ‘personal opinion’ and invited a ‘show cause’ notice against him. Talking to The Hindu, Mr. Peethambaran said Mr. Moulavi had not responded to the show cause notice, which resulted in his removal from the post. But Mr. Moulavi said that he had mailed a detailed response and sent the same by registered post as well.