Moving to split Cong in Kerala, Karunakaran to quit RS

The party high command, it seems, is in no mood to woo him back. ‘‘There is no move here to prevent a split in the party,’’ said a source. Ahmed Patel, who is in charge of the state, is opposed to a compromise. So is Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. All efforts towards a possible patch-up initiated by A K Antony have already fallen flat.

Karunakaran is set to launch his new outfit, likely to be called Congress (Indira), at a convention on May 1 in Thrissur where he learnt his first political lessons as a young trade union leader. Karunakaran has always projected himself as the original Gandhi family loyalist as he stood by Indira Gandhi even when the faction led by Antony walked out of the party.

The high command has not taken any action against him because any such move would generate sympathy for the 87-year-old leader. A three-time chief minister, Karunakaran built the party organisation as well as the ruling UDF. Even when he chose to rebel, the high command targeted his son, former Kerala PCC president K. Muraleedharan, by expelling him for six years.

General secretary Ambika Soni told reporters today: ‘‘We would never want a senior leader of our party to leave us.’’ ‘‘But,’’ she said, ‘‘I must stress that no efforts have been spared in trying to sort out the problems that our party has been facing there.’’

Congress spokesman Anand Sharma refused to comment on Karunakaran’s decision to resign his Rajya Sabha seat. He took pains to underline the fact that the Congress was ‘‘not driving him out.’’ ‘‘We give him due respect,’’ he said.

Govt okays 9.5 pc EPF interest rate drastically from May 1.

He said the total number of periodic reports that had to be made by assessees to indirect tax authorities had been drastically reduced from 133 to a mere seven.

This follows the recommendation of a working group that went into the streamlining of management information system reports and returns, many of which were found to be ‘‘redundant and repetitive’’.