Veteran Kerala [Images] politician K Karunakaran on Monday announced his plans to rejoin the Congress after a three-year-long estrangement with the party, admitting that it was a mistake to leave it.

"I am returning to my political home as the Congress alone could take the country forward, taking all the people together. From now on, my energy would be channelled in that direction," 89-year-old Karunakaran said at a convention of his supporters drawn from all parts of the state.

"I had differences with the Congress leadership. But now I realise it was a mistake on my part to have quit the Congress. I have no difficulty in admitting even standing on the top of Himalayas, that it was a mistake," he said.

Speaking on a podium with a tricolour board featuring Mahatma Gandhi [Images], Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi [Images] and Rajiv Gandhi, he said if the Congress became weak the country would get weakened.

On his son K Muraleedharan's refusal to toe his father's political line, Karunakaran said he was confident that the latter would also follow suit as no well-meaning person could think otherwise in the prevailing political circumstances.

"Anybody who closely analyses Indian politics knows that the Congress alone can carry all sections of the people. Whatever be the stumbling blocks on my path, I would return to where I belonged," he said, amid applause from the gathering.