Day after tonsuring head, Kerala Mahila Congress leader announces candidature
Though the party is yet to take action against her, senior Congress leaders said she had closed all avenues for discussion.
A day after tonsuring her head at the party headquarters in the state capital over denial of a seat, Kerala Mahila Congress president Lathika Subhash on Monday announced her decision to contest as an independent candidate from Ettumanoor constituency in Kottayam district.
Her action invited enough embarrassment to the party and attracted national attention as well. Though the party is yet to take action against her, senior Congress leaders said she had closed all avenues for discussion and the party will take disciplinary action if she contests against the UDF candidate.
But Subhash said she had quit all party posts and challenged the party to expel her.
“I have cut all my ties with the party. Let leaders take any action, I am least bothered. I will go by the decision of my followers,” she said after addressing a convention of her supporters in Ettumanoor. She said she will file her papers on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, party leaders are divided over her action. While some supported her, others said her action crossed all limits and she portrayed the party in a bad light. “We have sympathy for her. But she should have taken it to the party forum instead of this open defiance. Her action was in bad taste and it damaged the party’s image,” said PCC vice-president Lali Vincent. Another woman leader KC Rosakutty supported her.
Also read: Kerala Congress list has 55% new faces, party calls it ‘generational shift’
Communist Party of India (CPI) national leader Annie Raja said all three formations in the state, including the Left, failed to give proper representation to women. “I feel all three fronts, including the Left, failed women. In Subash’s case, some leaders even questioned her right to protest but they all conveniently forget what prompted her to take such an action,” she said in Delhi. Out of 85 seats declared, nine women figured in the Congress list while its rival CPI(M) has given tickets to 12 women this time.
Similar dissent is brewing in other parts of the state and efforts are on to quell it. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has rushed to Kalpetta in Wayanad to talk to local leaders who opposed the candidature of T Siddique. Congress candidate in Wayanad had to make way for party leader Rahul Gandhi in the last Lok Sabha elections. In Kannur also, the candidate list kicked up a big row. Party strongman K Sudhakaran MP criticised it openly saying seats were distributed on faction lines and winnability criteria took a back seat. Disgruntled leaders have called a convention in Kannur on Tuesday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also suffered a setback after a tribal candidate it announced in Wayanad with much fanfare backed out from the race saying his name was announced without his consent. C Manikandan, a research scholar from the Paniya community later took to social media quoting BR Ambedkar. “Even if I am hanged upside down, I will not betray my people,” he wrote in his Facebook post. He said he was not interested in electoral politics and will devote his time to the betterment of marginalised people.
In Kuttiyadi in north Kerala, the CPI(M) has decided to field party leader Kunahamad Kutty after party workers took to the streets protesting over the party’s decision to hand over the seat to the Kerala Congress (Mani). For a change, dissension rocked all parties this time.
