Karunakaran to be made governor?

9 June 2009

Thiruvananthapuram, June 9: Veteran Congress leader and former Kerala chief minister K. Karunakaran is likely to be made governor of a southern state following talks in New Delhi, party sources said Tuesday.

A Congress MP from Kerala told IANS over telephone from the capital that an announcement to this effect is expected in a couple of days.

"The final round of discussions took place yesterday (Monday) night when (Defence Minister) A.K. Antony, (Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs) Vayalar Ravi and Ahmed Patel visited Karunakaran," the Congress MP said on condition of anonymity.

Karunakaran arrived in New Delhi Sunday and has been engaged in talks with several Congress leaders.

The 90-year-old veteran first tasted political victory when he was elected to the Thrissur Municipal Council in 1945 on a Congress ticket.

Since then Karunakaran has held various political positions. He has been elected seven times as legislator from Mala seat in Thrissur from 1967 to 1991, he was leader of opposition on three occasions, chief minister four times, elected to the Rajya Sabha thrice and to the Lok Sabha twice.

But he and his son K. Muraleedharan left the Congress and formed the Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran in May 2005. However, he lost all but one of the 17 seats his party contested in the 2006 assembly polls.