Thiruvananthapuram:After suffering from a shattering defeat in the State assembly elections, many leaders and party men in the Congress in Kerala demand a complete overhaul in the party’s leadership in the organisation and also in parliamentary politics. The Congress high command is all set to come up with strong decisions taking a lesson or two from the debacle, it is being hinted.
The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has sought Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Mullappally Ramachandran to explain the reason for the Congress’s crushing failure in the State election. Demand for a total revamp in the organisation has come up from the State itself seeking to change those in positions including KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala.
Amid all the clamour, KPCC political affairs committee meeting would be held at KPCC headquarters on May 7. To get over the crisis, a new Opposition Leader would be chosen it is being hinted. The names of V D Satheeshan and P T Thomas seem to have an advantage in the party circles to the position of Opposition leader. It is interesting to note that the demand for a thorough change in the organisational structure is unanimous within the Congress party, regardless of groups or factions.
A general evaluation within the Congress is that Ramesh Chennithala was an utter failure as an opposition leader while standing against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his leadership calibre, both within the Assembly and in public. Chennithala’s daily press meets as a ‘competition’ of sorts against CM Pinarayi Vijayan’s daily COVID press meets was looked at as a ‘comedy’ by the people, besides having any effect at all.
The controversies and allegations raked up by the Opposition leader including Sprinkler, bar brewery, Pamba sand mining, deep-sea fishing trawlers scam and many such were not taken seriously by the people. Senior Congress leaders themselves are of the opinion that this indicates people’s lack of trust in Chennithala as the Opposition leader.
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Chennithala is also criticised for not reaching out to the people as the Opposition leader by engaging in a people-friendly working style. In short, he is considered a totally disarmed Opposition leader in front of the Pinarayi Vijayan. The leaders think that there is no point offering Ramesh Chennithala another chance as the Opposition leader and trying the luck of the party which has already suffered a crushing defeat.
The Congress high command is also said to be of the same opinion. The Congress regional leaders and party workers in Kerala also consider Mullappally Ramachandran a complete failure in the leadership position in the KPCC. Even after three years since he took over as the KPCC president, Mullappally has not given due attention to strengthening the organisational structure of the party in Kerala.
The party’s basic units at the Block and Constituency levels have been remaining defunct. However, nothing has been done by the KPCC president in three years to revive these units and strengthen the entire party machinery at the grassroots. The KPCC leadership was not ready to take up or convey the issues raised by the Opposition in the Assembly to the people. The party machinery was ill-prepared to exploit the favourable political atmosphere that prevailed during the civic body polls. Even when the LDF had expected a set back in the local body polls, Congress fought with the CPM totally unarmed, with a completely defunct party mechanism, and conceded defeat. Besides, Mullappally Ramachandran also failed to designate and assign party responsibilities to the KPCC office bearers.
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Congress’s national leadership and a section of senior leaders in the State are critical of Mullappally Ramachandran owing to all these drawbacks in carrying out his responsibilities. The national leadership finds no point in retaining Mullappally Ramachandran in the position either. Assam PCC president Ripuna Bohra has tendered his resignation taking the responsibility for the party’s defeat in Assam. The High Command expects that Mullappally Ramachandran resigns as KPCC president taking responsibility for the debacle.
One of the main factors for the Congress’s set back this time is attributed to the complete drifting of the party’s traditional vote banks - Muslims, Christians, minorities and backward classes. The Congress’s crushing defeat in Malabar and Central Kerala indicates this factor. The party could not defend CPM’s allegation that the Congress is being guided by the Indian Union of Muslims League (IUML), which seem to have reflected in the votes from Hindu and Christian communities. The party could neither overrule the apprehension among Muslim communities on the allegations that ‘today’s Congress is tomorrow’s BJP’. All these might have made the two powerful communities in the Kerala society drift away from the Congress and the UDF.
The leadership that would take over after the top to bottom overhaul of the Congress party should be one that can bring these communities back to Congress. The High Command is in a soup unable to decide on such ‘an efficient leadership’ for Kerala and is yet to take stock of the defeat.
Besides the names of K Sudhakaran, K Muralidharan and P T Thomas, Kodikkunnil Suresh is also being considered for the State leadership. It is being hinted that the High Command’s stand is to choose a leader who can efficiently shoulder the responsibilities beyond groups and favouritism within the party.
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