‘Like homecoming’, says former Congress leader PC Chacko as he joins NCP

PC Chacko, who resigned from the Congress last week, joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday. Chacko joined the NCP in New Delhi in the presence of party chief Sharad Pawar and senior leader Praful Patel. 

Speaking to journalists after joining the NCP, Chacko said it was like ‘homecoming for him’.

“I am happy to be in NCP, it’s like a homecoming for me. I had the opportunity to work with Pawar sahab in the most difficult times,” Chacko said.

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PC Chacko, who was a former working committee member of the Congress, criticised the Sonia Gandhi-led party and said that the organisation lacked the will to be a strong opposition.

“Country needs a strong opposition, I didn’t see much of the effort from the party I was in,” Chacko, who is the second senior leader to quit the Congress after Jyotiraditya Scindia, said. 

Chacko said he would be campaigning for the LDF during the upcoming Assembly elections in Kerala. “I have become a part of LDF now…I will be touring Kerala and will be campaigning for LDF,” he said.

Chacko had resigned from the Congress alleging that there was no democracy left in the party.

“No democracy left in Congress. Candidate list (for Kerala election) has not been discussed with the state Congress committee,” he had said.

“I come from Kerala where there’s no Congress party as such. There are two parties Congress (I) and Congress (A). It’s a coordination committee of two parties functioning as KPCC,” Chacko said.

Referring to the period of vacuum created in the party’s national leadership after Rahul Gandhi quit the post of Congress president following the party’s defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Chacko said, “the Congress had been headless for the last one-and-a-half years”.

(With PTI inputs)

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