Kottayam: Oomen Chandy gets Puthupally people to stage protest drama, walking into a crowd that cried “ Puthupally will not give Oomen Chandy away”, upon his return from Delhi at 11 am, Saturday.
Early in the day, a man climbed Oomen Chandy’s rooftop at his Puthupally home, threatening suicide and shouting “Wont give Oomen Chandy to Nemom”. He then settled there shouting “Wont give away Oomen Chandy though Rahul Gandhi demands.” Media shone their spotlights on the man since morning in their news coverage. Soon, the women workers too arrived at the scene staging their own sit-in protest and slogan : “Wont let our brother away.”
As Oomen Chandy’s car approached the spot, protesters blocked the vehicle, spicing up the plot further. And as he walked into the mayhem, wailing protesters shouted “(You’re) Our Child. Wont Give You Away.” The wails quickly morphed into applause as Oomen Chandy announced he would never leave Puthupally. The words also triggered the suicide-rioter to descend down the roof. “Nobody has asked me to contest in Nemom”, said Oomen Chandy to the crowd around him.
Apparently, the drama orchestrated at Puthupally was meant to hype Oomen Chandy’s return from Screening Committee in Delhi, where despite discussions lasting five days, Congress failed to find candidates for constituencies including Nemom. The likelihood of Oomen Chandy contesting Nemom made news on television initially. It however later changed to Ramesh Chennithala, then Sashi Tharoor and KC Venugopal still later as the last probable Nemom candidate. With nobody willing to contest Nemom, Oomen Chandy was once again re-looked for Nemom and the Puthupally drama came in response to that follow-up proposition. Kottayam DCC too shot a letter to High Command asking Oomen Chandy for Puthupally constituency.
Meanwhile, the KPCC General Secretary Vijayan Thomas - the plan-b candidate for Nemom - quit Congress yesterday to join BJP.
