Thursday, February 9 2006 18:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Thiruvananthapuram: Congress has no plans to talk to Karunakaran to bring the veteran leader back to the party but wants all those who left the organisation to come back on their own, AICC general secretary Veerappa Moily said today (Feb 9, 2006).

"How can I talk to him. He is very much on the other side. He is now negotiating with the LDF," Moily told reporters when asked if he had any plans to talk to the senior leader who broke ranks and launched his own outfit last year.

Moily, however, appealed to all those who left the Congress to return to the parent party on their own, heeding the call made by the AICC plenary at Hyderabad.

Asked if the appeal also covered Karunakaran, Moily said 'a call is a call.'

Moily, in charge of party affairs in Kerala, said the split caused by the octogenarian leader did not damage the Congress in the state.

The Congress was not rattled by the electoral reversals in the state, where the UDF was confident of returning to power in the next assembly polls on the plank of the government's performance. There were umpteen examples of electoral setbacks being reversed in a short time, he said.

He said the UDF government under the leadership of A K Antony and Oommen Chandy could lead the state to economic progress and financial stability. The implementation of the Narendran Commission report on backward class reservation through consensus was also a major achievement, he added.