Sandeep Varier's arrival will be beneficial for Congress, says KPCC Chief

A day after dissident Kerala BJP leader Sandeep G Varier joined the party, the Congress on Sunday said his arrival would be beneficial for the party and expressed hope that more leaders from the saffron party would follow in his footsteps in the coming days.

A former spokesperson and state committee member of BJP, Varier was given a grand welcome by the top leaders of the grandold party at its office in bypoll-bound Palakkad on Saturday.

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief K Sudhakaran said on Sunday that the leadership had introspected whether Varier's arrival would be harmful to the party.

As per their assessment, his arrival would be beneficial to the party, the KPCC Chief said.

Varier would no longer do anything that he did while being part of the BJP and he was accepted by the Congress party based on that assurance, he said.

"He is not a worker but a leader of the Congress party now. He has all the freedom except acting against the interests of the Congress party. We are sure that he won't do such things," he told media.

Sudhakaran also expressed confidence that more leaders would quit the BJP and join the Congress party in the coming days.

The veteran leader said Sandeep's arrival into the Congress party was a reply to those who propagated that he would join the BJP.

Meanwhile, Sandeep Varier on Sunday visited prominent leaders of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second largest coalition partner in the Congress-led UDF, in Malappuram.

He was received by IUML Spremo Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal, veteran party leader P K Kunhalikutty and so on.

While addressing reporters, Varier hailed the contribution of the Panakkad family in fostering the secular fabric and humanity in the state and in the country.

He further said that cutting across politics, everybody accepts the fact that it was the Panakkad family who laid the foundation for the humanitarian harmony of Malappuram which is an exemplary model to the entire country.

"I have come to the Congress party and accepted the humanitarian ideology of the UDF as I fed up with the politics of contempt and grudge," Varier added.

Thangal also told media that he was happy to welcome Varier to the world of secularism, democracy and friendship.

The joining of Sandeep Varier in the Congress was a political twist ahead of the crucial bypoll in Palakkad assembly constituency on November 20.

Sandeep had said that he left the party because he was frustrated with the constant compromises between the BJP leadership and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

He further stated that the BJP abandoned him for opposing the Karuvannur co-operative bank scam.