Murali, Satheesan fall by the wayside

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: As usual, merit suffered a humiliating defeat against nepotism in the Congress scheme of affairs.The list of ministers announced by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Saturday is weak in many aspects, including merit and communal balance.The most surprising omission is that of V D Satheesan, the star performer of the Congress in the previous Assembly.While most of the UDF stalwarts were defeated in 2006, it was Satheesan who led the Opposition from the front whenever a controversial issue came up for debate.The televised d e b a t e between Satheesan and Thomas Isaac on the lottery controversy had launched him as one of the best leaders in the Congress.It is an open secret that lottery king Santiago Martin was baying for Satheesan’s blood.Sources in Congress told ‘Express’ that Satheesan was sidelined to include first timer V S Sivakumar in the Cabinet.Though both Satheesan and Sivakumar belonged to ‘I’ group, K P C C president Ramesh Chennithala preferred Sivakumar to Satheesan when he had to choose one.“Satheesan was in the list approved by the high command.There was a provision to change it if the ‘I’ group wanted,” a source said.The same was the fate with K Muraleedharan.When he was extended a supporting hand by leaders like A K Antony, Vayalar Ravi, K V Thomas and Mullappally Ramachandran, he failed to win that support from the KPCC.In fact, he was totally sidelined by the KPCC leadership and this was the reason why Muraleedharan didn’t get due recognition.Sources said even Oommen Chandy had made up his mind to accommodate Muraleedharan following discussions with A K Antony in New Delhi.But the KPCC leadership failed to understand that an agitated Murali waiting outside the Cabinet will be dangerous than a tamed Murali who is inside