Congress MLA removed for praising Modi, meets him

New Delhi: Removed from the party for praising Narendra Modi, A.P. Abdullakutty, former Congress MLA from Kerala, met the Prime Minister here on Monday.

The meeting was arranged by Keralite businessman-turned-BJP Rajya Sabha member Rajiv Chandrasekhar.

After the meeting, Abdullakutty said, "He (Modi) was happy when I told him about my participation in the yoga day."

The two-time MLA was removed from the Congress on June 3 after he said Modi was following the Gandhian model of governance. When he was served a show-cause notice by the party, Abdullakutty failed to give satisfactory explanation for his remark.

Abdullakutty achieved political prominence through the CPI-M student wing and when he defeated present Kerala Congress chief Mullapally Ramachandran twice in 1999 and 2004 from the Kannur Lok Sabha seat.

In 2009, the CPI-M sacked him from the party amid mounting differences and also because he praised Modi's Gujarat development model.

He won the Kannur Assembly by-election and repeated his victory in 2011, but in 2016, he lost the polls from the Thalassery seat.