Antony family continues to be in shock at Anil's joining BJP

Thiruvananthapuram, April 7 (IANS) The family of the veteran Congress leader in Kerala and the country's longest-serving Defence Minister, A.K. Antony, continues to be in a state of disbelief and shock after his elder son, Anil Antony, joined the BJP.

Antony, who hardly speaks to the media, had to face them after his telephone continuously rang on Thursday to get his reaction on the development, and when he spoke on the issue for a few minutes at the state party headquarters on Thursday evening, more than what he said, his face said it all.

On Friday, it was the turn of his younger son Ajith Antony to slam his elder brother.

"Anil said that in the Congress party, it's a family which decides, but what he fails to realise is in the BJP, it's not a few but just one person. No one says that it's the BJP government but it is called the Modi government. We all believe that he will realise his mistake and return as we are all in a state of shock.

"He was not very happy and of late, he rarely used to call and we were totally shocked to see him at 3 p.m. (Thursday) on TV . We never expected he will join the BJP, even as we knew he was not happy with the Congress," Ajith Antony said.

The Congress expects that with Antony's open statement condemning his son, things have fallen in place and the party will not be at a loss by losing him.

There was an endless stream of calls from various party leaders comforting Antony and one such caller was the Rajya Sabha's former Deputy Chairperson P.J. Kurian who said Anil has made a wrong move and this has affected Antony badly.

But the CPI-M and BJP in Kerala are upbeat as they know they can use this politically.

Senior BJP leader A.N. Radhakrishnan said it's not just sons who have joined the BJP , but fathers also are expected shortly and leaders from both the CPI-M and Congress will soon join the BJP.

Top CPI-M leader M.V. Jayarajan said Anil has joined the BJP with the full knowledge of Antony and claimed that the next leader from the Congress who would be going will be present state party President K.Sudhakaran and Anil has reached there first to bargain for a good post for him.