The release of a list of new District Congress Committee presidents has caused yet another internal feud in the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC). Ever since the list came out on August 28, Saturday, different leaders of the party have been expressing their displeasure. Former Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Ooomen Chandy has alleged that he was not consulted before the list was released. But KPCC president and Member of Parliament K Sudhakaran on Sunday lashed out at Oommen Chandy, saying he has had two rounds of meetings with both Oomen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala before the list was finalised and released from New Delhi.
Earlier, two senior leaders KP Anil Kumar and K Sivasadan were suspended for expressing their displeasure over the selection in a television channel. "They both showed lack of discipline and made public statements through the media related to the reconstitution of DCCs," a statement from KPCC said, while suspending the leaders. Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader VD Satheesan also came down heavily against those who had expressed open resentment against the list and said that all those who mattered in the state Congress were consulted before the list of DCC presidents was finalised.
Satheesan, while speaking to reporters said, "The list was not prepared by having discussions between me and Sudhakaran in a corner of the room. All concerned were consulted and their opinions were taken before the list was finalised and forwarded to the high command which announced the list in New Delhi."
Congress group leaders, Oomen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala, had expressed their unhappiness to both AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and it was at the insistence of Rahul that the close loyalists of these two leaders were accommodated in the list, he said. In Alappuzha DCC, former MLA and Ramesh Chennithala's close associate Babu Prasad was given the nod over Sreekumar whose name was finalised by the KPCC president in consultation with AICC general secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal. In Kottayam district also, there was an alternation in the list after Chandy insisted on his nominee Nattakam Suresh over Philson Thomas, whose name was finalised. In Idukki, Asokan was removed and CP Mathew came in after Chennithala expressed dissatisfaction.
After the drubbing of the Congress in the 2021 Assembly elections, the party had decided to go for a major makeover and both the then Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala and KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran were removed by the party high command. VD Satheeshan and K Sudhakran were the respective replacements.
Meanwhile K.P. Anil Kumar who was suspended from the party temporarily said that he has not said more than what Satheesan and Sudhakaran had said against the party during earlier days and that his suspension was uncalled for.
With IANS Inputs