Thiruvananthapuram: Congress leader PC Chacko turned out to be undesirable for the Congress high command after he revealed that he had signed as the Congress Working Committee member along with the 23 leaders who gave a letter to Sonia Gandhi seeking to appoint a full-time president for the Congress, earlier.
Chacko was affected when the high command clarified that he was not a Working Committee member. The high command clarified that he was a special invitee in the Working Committee as he was in charge of the Delhi Congress Committee then and that once he was relieved from the responsibility of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), he will not be part of the working committee even as a special invitee.
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Chacko, who was the apple of the eye for the Congress national leadership had then got hints that his grip over the high command had started to slacken. During the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Chacko, who had forsaken the sitting seat of Thrissur and took Chalakkudy for fear of losing the seat, had to endure defeat.
In 2019, when 19 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats were won by the Congress-led UDF candidates, Chacko was not considered to any of the seats. He was totally dejected and disappointed as he was being isolated in the Congress in Kerala. He was a loner in his parliamentary life also.
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After this phase, amid rumours that Chacko is to join the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), he quits the Congress all of a sudden. Earlier, when the Indian National Congress split and a faction led by Sharad Pawar formed the Congress S, Chacko was with Pawar in the Congress S. He has been keeping that bond alive and warm, always.
P C Chacko, who got into party politics through Congress’s student wing, Kerala Students Union (KSU), has always been part of Congress’s groupism and conflicts. When the Congress in Kerala split in 1978 and a faction led by AK Antony drifted apart, Chacko who was a Youth Congress State leader then went with the Antony faction, Congress A, which was against the Indira faction of the Indian National Congress.
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In 1979, it was Antony and Chacko who initiated the joining of this faction with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by the CPM in Kerala. In the Assembly elections in 1980, Congress A led by Chacko and Antony contested on the Left panel. He became the Industries Minister when the CPM government came to power with the support of the Congress Antony faction. Chacko was elected as a legislator from the Piravom constituency.
In 1981, even when AK Antony returned to the Congress, Chacko continued with Sharad Pawar, who had split the Congress, and remained in the LDF. Chacko was defeated in the 1982 Assembly election contesting on LDF ticket.
Chacko, who was the state president for Sharad Pawar Congress from 1982 until 1986 in Kerala, returned to the Congress in 1986. Chacko stood by the then most prominent leader in the State Congress, K Karunakaran. He contested from Thrissur to Lok Sabha and won the seat for the first time in 1991. In 1996, Chacko left the Thrissur seat for Karunakaran and won the Lok Sabha seat from Mukundapuram. He became the MP from Idukki in 1998. He was defeated from Kottayam in 2004 when he had contested the Parliamentary elections.
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Chacko, who got elected to the Lok Sabha from Thrissur constituency in 2009, had gained attention as the chairman of the joint parliamentary committee to probe the 2G spectrum scam. Chacko was never willing to contest again from the same constituency from where he has won. In 2004, he chose Chalakkudy forsaking the sitting seat Thrissur and failed miserably in Chalakkudy.
After K Karunakaran’s death, Chacko had tried to form another group led by him in the Congress as an alternative to Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala groups. However, as he hardly had the reach and appeal among the Congress workers like the other two leaders, he could not form a group.
Chacko, who has been working in the party based in Delhi for a long time, could not be an influential person in the party in Kerala. Though Chacko was a member of the 2021 Assembly election candidate selection committee, Chandy and Chennithala did not approve of even one candidate suggested by him.
Chacko’s decision to resign from the party was an outburst of protest against these actions by the State Congress leaders. He quit from Congress stating that there is no democracy left in the party. The political analysts opined that Chacko’s return to the party might depend on how the 76-year-old Congress leader’s protest would be considered by the party.
