THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress leader Kodikunnil Suresh has said that there is untouchability towards Dalit leaders in the party. “I am qualified to hold the KPCC president post, but they will never give me the opportunity,” he said in an interview to a private channel.

“I have won in Lok Sabha elections seven times. If I am able to repeat victory one more time, I will become the pro-tem speaker in the house. But nobody will applaud me because of my caste. But I don’t need that,” he said.

“It might be for the first time in Kerala’s electoral history, that a person from Dalit community is reaching the Lok Sabha for so many times repeatedly,” the Mavelikkara MP stated. He also added that he is able to repeat victory as he is working hard for the people in the constituency. “I have worked in AICC, as a union minister and also as the working president of KPCC. I am qualified to become the chief of KPCC. On what basis was I rejected? There is no justification for that,” he said in the interview.

“AICC will only appoint a KPCC president after intense talks and deliberations because it is concerned about the party’s future in Kerala. It is only in Kerala, untouchability is imposed upon Dalit leaders from holding the party’s top post. In Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Dalits had already become chief ministers,” he added.

“Now changes are happening even in Kerala. Last time when M M Hassan was removed from the post of KPCC president, I had raised a claim for that post, but instead of me, Mullapally was appointed as the party chief. Later I was appointed as the working president,” Suresh said.