After a lull, factionalism in Kerala Congress is back at its worst

The factional war within Congress in Kerala has taken a new turn, changing current group equations drastically.

The immediate trigger was the release of a list of district Congress committee chiefs by Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K Sudhakaran and Opposition leader VD Satheeshan. The list has created a storm within the party, challenging the existing groups led by Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala. Chandy and Chennithala came out in public against the axis of KC Venugopal, K Sudhakaran and VD Satheesan, accusing the trio of avoiding discussion within the party and taking one-sided decisions.

Chandy is known as a man who seldom makes public statements on factional feuds. This time he openly went hostile against K Sudhakaran and Satheesan. “Regarding the list, I met Sudhakaran only once and no proper discussion happened,” said Chandy while speaking to media persons.

Ramesh Chennithala too openly expressed his displeasure. He said that people who got positions by virtue of being part of certain groups are now talking against groupism. Both top leaders submitted their own lists of candidates for the post of district committee presidents, but embarrassingly most of the names suggested by them were ignored. According to party insiders, the list was used to identify their loyalists and to negotiate accordingly. On the other hand, there is widespread displeasure among local-level Congressmen towards Chennithala and Chandy, considering the repeated debacles in recent elections, including the recent local body and Assembly elections. The party had suffered shameful defeats under the leadership of both Chandy and Chennithala.

“Chandy is a legend and we all respect him, but factionalism will lead the party nowhere. The CPI(M) is giving an opportunity to more youngsters and we need to match them,” said one of the nominees in the list.

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Though factional feud is nothing new to Congress, the current one is developing into a big war. Disciplinary action and resignations will follow. Two senior leaders were suspended recently for speaking loud against the state party leadership.

Former MLA K Sivadasan Nair and former KPCC general secretary KP Anil Kumar were ‘temporarily suspended’ from the party. “They violated the party discipline by talking publicly against the re-constitution of DCCs,” said a press statement issued by the KPCC President K Sudhakaran.

Sivadasan Nair and KP Anil Kumar had openly criticised the party leadership during TV debates which lead to their suspension. However, both the leaders show little regret and stood by their statements even after suspension.

AV Gopinath, KPCC member and former president of the Palakkad DCC, quit the primary membership of the party. Putting an end to his 50-year-long association with the party, Gopinath announced his resignation at a press conference. Gopinath was expecting the post of DCC chief, but another leader, A Thankappan, was elevated to the position. Gopinath had hit the headlines earlier by speaking against the leadership for denying him a ticket in the recent Assembly elections. However, there are rumours that Gopinath would join the CPM. He gave credence to this rumour by praising Pinarayi Vijayan for his leadership quality.

Another leader who faced the music was PS Prasanth, KPCC Secretary, who was suspended from the party for criticising the party leadership in public. Prasanth, who was the UDF candidate from Nedumangadu constituency in the Assembly elections, said the list of new DCC chiefs includes even those who tried to defeat the UDF candidates at the last hustings.

PS Prasanth sent a letter to Rahul Gandhi alleging that ‘KC Venugopal is an agent of BJP’. He alleged that Palodu Ravi, the new DCC president in Thiruvananthapuram, tried to defeat him in the Assembly election in connivance with the BJP, in which KC Venugopal played a role. K Sudhakaran, who is in Delhi, immediately suspended Prasanth for making “baseless allegations”.

The release of the list of DCC presidents is only a culmination of the resentment evolving since Congress’ defeat in the Assembly election. Bringing Satheesan and K Sudhakaran into two key positions was a clear indication that the AICC leadership was not happy about the group fights in the party anymore. This is reinforced by the new list of DCC chiefs solely finalised by the newly formed power axis in the party — Venugopal, Satheesan and Sudhakaran.

Satheesan has apparently made it clear that he would not yield to threats or pressure and will go ahead with the decisions taken. However, no one revolting against the appointment of DCC chiefs complained about the absence of women on the list. “They could not even maintain the statuesque,” said Lathika Subhash, who quit Congress before the Assembly election for being denied a ticket. Bindu Krishna, who contested against actor Mukesh in Kollam and was defeated, was the only woman among the 14 district chiefs. She too has been omitted from the list.

Lathika Subhash grabbed the attention of national media for openly shaving her head for being denied a ticket in the Assembly election. Lathika, who later joined NCP, told The Federal that women get least consideration in Congress. “They never bring women into key positions. There was only one woman who was given the position of general secretary when I was there in the party. I wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi about it,” says Lathika Subhash, who is now the state vice-president of NCP.

Political commentators say the ongoing tussle will indeed be good for the party in the long run.