Malappuram, May 28 (UNI) AICC (All India Congress Committee) General Secretary K C Venugopal on Wednesday refused to give time to meet with former Nilambur assembly constituency MLA and All India Trinamool Committee (AITC) State Coordinator, P V Anvar.

Anvar had visited Kozhikode to meet K C Venugopal to discuss about the inclusion of AITC into the United Democratic Front (UDF).

K C Venugopal left for New Delhi from Karipur International Airport at around 2100 hrs .

Talking to news persons before leaving for New Delhi, Venugopal said, "Congress has a leadership in Kerala to handle the Anvar issue and they will look after all the matters in this regard. All other speculations about this issue are media creations."

Earlier, Venugopal had opined after a meeting with Congress and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leaders, "the reason for the Nilambur assembly by-election is the resignation of P V Anvar, against the mismanagement of the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Left Democratic Front (LDF).

He had also said the common stand of the UDF and the Congress is to respect the sentiments of P V Anvar for his inclusion in the UDF. He also said, "no one in the UDF has any intention to isolate P V Anvar".

Earlier, Anvar had expressed his happiness with responses of senior Congress leaders K C Venugopal and former KPCC president K Sudhakaran, for favouring him.

Anvar had been given two days' time to respond to the Congress party over the candidature of KPCC general secretary Aryadan Shoukath and he had openly criticised the selection of UDF candidate for the Nilambur assembly by-election.

In reply, Opposition leader V D Satheeshan said that former Nilambur LDF-backed Independent MLA, P V Anvar, will decide on whether to cooperate in election campaigning for Congress-led UDF candidate Aryadan Shoukath in the Nilambur by-election scheduled to be held on June 19.

Satheeshan said, "It is up to P V Anvar to decide whether to support the UDF candidate or not in this election. At present, P V Anvar expressed his disagreement to cooperate with the UDF candidate. If Anvar decides to cooperate with UDF, then we will definitely go together."

Meanwhile, the Nilambur by-election was necessitated following the resignation of LDF backed Independent MLA P V Anvar in January 2024.

Anvar has been representing the Nilambur assembly constituency for the last 8.5 years (2016- 2024) . The CPI(M)-led LDF had distanced him for levelling baseless allegations against the Kerala Chief Minister and CPI(M).

Later, Anvar joined All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and was appointed as AITC State Coordinator and started a friendly relationship with UDF leaders and publicly announced two months back that he will work to strengthen the UDF in the coming elections.

UNI AK/ANV SS