Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 7 - The Congress Friday announced it will not take back former state unit president K. Muraleedharan, who was expelled from the party in 2005 for six years.

After a party state executive meeting, state Congress president Ramesh Chennithala said: 'We discussed this is detail and it has been decided that admitting Muraleedharan into the party would create a serious dent in the image of the party. During his suspension period he was out and out against our party and hence his re-entry will do no good.'

Muraleedharan, who is son of four-time former Congress chief minister K. Karunakaran, after his expulsion from Congress formed the Democratic Indira Congress-Karunakaran (DIC-K) with his father. A year later, the DIC-K merged with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

On Aug 1, Muraleedharan was removed as the NCP state chief and expelled from the party after his comments that he wanted to go back to the Congress.