Karunakaran slams doors on high command’s last-ditch effort

Decks were cleared for a head-on confrontation between Congress high command and senior leader K. Karunakaran, who tonight slammed the doors on AICC observers’ last-minute attempt to get rebel nominee Kodath Govindan Nair withdraw from tomorrow’s Rajya Sabha elections from Kerala.

‘‘Somehow or other, we could not work out a solution and we were not able to make him withdraw his candidate,’’ AICC observers Ghulam Nabi Azad and R.K. Dhawan, rushed by the high command to defuse the crisis in the party, told reporters after a 40-minute meeting with Karunakaran, their second since yesterday.

Karunakaran said: ‘‘Unfortunately, due to various reasons, a formula acceptable to all sections could not be evolved. What compromise could be worked out now? Tomorrow is the election.’’ ‘‘The official candidates nominated by AICC high command will be in fray and obviously they will win,’’ Azad and Dhawan said.