Kochi, April 28: Former state Minister and three-time legislator Thomas Chandy was on Saturday unanimously elected the new President of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Kerala unit.

Chandy replaces acting President T.P. Peethamabaran, who was holding the post after the sudden demise of Uzhavur Vijayan last year.

Senior party leader Praful Patel, who was present on the occasion, told the media that the new set of office-bearers of the NCP state unit was elected unanimously.

Owner of a business empire in Kuwait, Chandy first entered politics through the Democratic Indira Congress, a party floated by Congress veteran K. Karunakaran in 2005.

In the 2006 Assembly polls, DIC was an ally of the Congress-led United Democratic Front. After the polls, the DIC merged with the NCP.

NCP has two legislators in the Kerala Assembly -- Thomas Chandy from Kuttanad and A.K. Saseendran from Elathur. Both were re-elected from their seats in the last Assembly polls.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.

The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.

Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.