It's official. K Sudhakaran has been appointed as president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee. All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary KC Venugopal in an official statement on May 8, said that Congress President Sonia Gandhi has appointed K Sudhakaran as the President of KPCC. Sudhakaran, currently a Member of Parliament from Kannur, will take over the mantle from Mulappally Ramachandran. The Congress heads the Opposition United Democratic Front in the state.
Kodikkunnil Suresh MP, PT Thomas MLA, and T Siddique MLA have been appointed as Working Presidents of the KPCC. The stunning failure of the Congress in the Kerala Assembly Elections held in April had kicked off discussions in the party Kerala unit on removing Mullappally as the KPCC President. While Hibi Eden, a young Congress MP from Ernakulam, had put a post on Facebook asking why the party needed a sleeping President, Mullapally had reacted that it was not fair to vacate the post at a critical juncture and hence he was continuing. However, rumors had been rife that Sudhakaran will be chosen as the KPCC President.
Sudhakaran, is a senior and prominent leader of the party from Kannur, but he is however infamous for his misogynic comments. In 2019, during a speech in Kasaragod district, he had made a sexist comment when he took aim at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, stating that his governance showed that he was “worse than a woman.” In 2019, he also led Congress's protest against the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple.
His campaign video for the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 attracted wrath as well, for portraying women in a sexist manner and alleging that women aren’t useful. Sudhakaran, in 2013, faced severe criticism after he questioned the character of a rape survivor in Suryanelli in the state when there were reports that Congress leader PJ Kurien was connected to the case. He had also been in the news for another wrong reason for making casteist remarks against Pinarayi Vijayan.
“What is Pinarayi's family? Chethukarude kudumbam (toddy tappers family) . Pinarayi Vijayan, who held the revolutionary flame of the working class from a family of toddy-tappers and led you from the front holding the red flag, where is he now? A CM who rose from the toddy tappers' family needs a helicopter to travel. He will be the first CM in Kerala to do so,” Sudhakaran said at the statewide rally led by the then Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, election campaign reached Thalassery during the Assembly elections.