New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram, April 25 The Congress disciplinary committee, led by veteran Congress leader A.K. Antony will meet in Delhi on Tuesday to look into the explanation given by estranged leader and former Union Minister K.V. Thomas after he was served a show cause notice for breaching party discipline.
Incidentally, Antony and Thomas were colleagues in the cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (2009-14) and the latter was the state Tourism and Fisheries Minister in Antony's cabinet (2001-04).
Congress leaders from Kerala have been seeking Thomas's immediate removal from the party following his participation in a seminar on the Centre-state relations held as part of the 23rd Party Congress of the CPI-M in Kannur early this month.
The CPI-M had invited party MP Shashi Tharoor and Thomas to participate in the seminar.
State Congress President K. Sudhakaran immediately told both leaders not to participate and even the party President Sonia Gandhi intervened in the matter and repeated the same. While Tharoor backed out, Thomas decided to go ahead to attend the seminar.
The Antony committee met in Delhi on April 11 and decided to serve Thomas a show cause notice, seeking his reply in a week's time. Thomas promptly complied.
Thomas has been maintaining all through that all what he did was to take part in a seminar to highlight the wrong doings by the present BJP led NDA government and this cannot be seen as an act of indiscipline, as several Congress leaders have done it in the past.
The Antony committee will also look into former Punjab chief Sunil Jakhar's act of indiscipline when he defied the party's gag order and spoke about former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
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