Bitter Dhanapalan blames leadership

KOCHI: K P Dhanapalan, who lost to C N Jayadevan in Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency, has said that the Congress party leadership had failed to understand the pulse of the voters in both Thrissur and Chalakudy.
He told reporters in Thrissur that he had made an emotional plea to the Congress high command not to move him from the Chalakudy constituency. "However, in a meeting held in New Delhi, days after I began my first-round preparation to contest from Chalakudy, the seniormost party leaders pressurized me to switch to Thrissur for P C Chacko.I even told them that I'm ready to stay off the election if they want to field Chacko in Chalakudy. The leaders, however, put pressure on me till I swallowed the bitter pill," he said.
Dhanapalan also said he had to face the hostility the people and party workers had towards Chacko. The results showed that the leadership's decision was wrong and that the leaders could not understand the pulse of voters, he said.
Minutes after Dhanapalan's salvo, Chacko told reporters that he didn't believe that the swapping of candidates in Thrissur and Chalakudy had led to the UDF failure in both the constituencies.
He said the opinion of Dhanapalan was personal and he had nothing to say about it. "It was the high command that took the decision to change candidates and I just obeyed the party decision. I too have a few things to say about the failure, which I would reveal in party forums," he said.