Congress writes letter to speaker; Rahul Mamkootathil to be considered as independent member

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a bid to further distance itself from the discredited MLA, the Congress has informed the assembly speaker that Rahul Mamkootathil is no longer a member of its parliamentary party. Congress parliamentary party leader V D Satheesan on Friday evening handed over a letter in this regard to the speakers office. On the basis of the letter, Rahul will be considered as part of an independent block. Speaker A N Shamseer will decide on the seating arrangement of Rahul on September 15, the day the assembly session starts. Rahul was suspended from the primary membership of Congress on August 25 after three individuals raised inappropriate misconduct and sexual misbehaviour allegations against him. The party took the decision after the government formed a crime branch team to probe the allegations, and the audio of phone conversation allegedly between Rahul and the victims. The CPM has also been questioning Congress silence about the probable stand to be taken on Rahul in the assembly. The decision to distance itself from Rahul in the assembly is a political gain for Satheesan. However, the opposition leader has also come down from his earlier stand that KPCC must ask Rahul to step down from the MLA post. Fridays decision has come out of a consensus reached by the leadership, a senior Congress leader told TNIE . After finding out that there are not many takers for his demand, Satheesan has decided to stand with the party line and majority opinion, he added. Speaking to reporters, Satheesan said that Rahul is neither in the parliamentary party or Congress party. He also said that KPCC president would clarify on the stand of the party related to the MLAs presence in the assembly. KPCC president Sunny Joseph, on the other hand, made it clear that Rahul could attend the assembly session and there was no disqualification on it. He also reminded the ruling front that it is the speakers duty to arrange protection for Rahul in the assembly. Meanwhile, according to multiple sources in Congress, the party leadership has decided not to intervene on the choice of Rahul to attend the session. As a peoples representative, many discredited MLAs had attended the sessions before. Here, there is no official complaint against Rahul. We will not interfere. However, we will counter the ruling benchs unethical stance pointing out their double standard in matters of criminal cases including sexual offence against their own MLAs, a KPCC office-bearer told TNIE . However, according to sources close to Rahul, they have decided to take cautious steps. We havent decided on the issue of attending the assembly session, a leader said. However, there are enough hints that Rahul might come to the assembly at the start of the session or in the second half of the session.