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After Kerala debacle, many demand Cong overhaul
Thiruvananthapuram: After shocking defeat in the assembly elections in Kerala knives are out in the Congress, with many leaders openly demanding complete overhaul of the organisation and corrective steps to stem the tide, people familiar with the developments said
Thiruvananthapuram:
After shocking defeat in the assembly elections in Kerala knives are out in the Congress, with many leaders openly demanding complete overhaul of the organisation and corrective steps to stem the tide, people familiar with the developments said.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) managed to win only 41 out of 140 seats in the Kerala assembly elections, results of which were announced on Sunday. The ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front swept the polls, winning 99 seats and breaking the four-decade-old jinx of alternating government in the state.
Soon after the results were declared, leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Mullapally Ramachandran reportedly informed the party high command about their intention to quit. While the HT cannot independently verify the veracity of the reports, it has learnt that the two leaders were waiting for permission from the high command. Many district Congress presidents have also offered to quit, people quoted earlier said. Alapuzha district Congress president M Liju, who lost in Ambalapuzha, has already resigned and Idukki and Kannur DCC presidents have also offered to quit.
Many party workers took to the social media to vent their anger and sought immediate change of the state leadership, with a section strongly batting for Kannur strongman and member of Parliament K Sudhakaran to assume the PCC president’s post to lift the sagging morale of workers. They argued that only a strong leader could check the ruling CPI(M), adding that Sudhakaran is known for his acerbic tongue and strong reactions. Senior leader and former minister Thiruvanchur Radhakrishnan has also endorsed the name, saying Sudhakaran was able enough to steer the party out of trouble.
“There was laxity after the big victory in parliament elections (winning 19 out of 20 Lok Sabha seats) and some of the leaders failed to gauge the Left front’s ability to manipulate things. It is a collective responsibility, but senior leaders will have to own it up,” senior Congress leader P T Thomas, who emerged victorious from a seat in Ernakulam, said on Monday.
Another section of Congress workers blamed the party for introducing so many young candidates in such a short span. Out of 95 Congress candidates, more than 55% were new faces and the party termed it a “generational shift”. But only a couple of them made it in the Left surge and the party could win only 21 seats this time.
Some workers even said that party’s national leader Rahul Gandhi, who campaigned extensively and had a big role in the selection of candidates, will have to share responsibility. He and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had campaigned extensively in the state. As an MP from Wayanad, Gandhi held many rallies, road shows and interactions in the state. Some of his videos like addressing students in a women’s college in Kochi and his sea voyage with fishermen in Kollam later turned viral.
Meanwhile, some young party workers have sought a larger role for Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, who is quite popular among youth. Tharoor campaigned extensively in the state this time and also prepared a “people’s manifesto”.
“The party will have to undergo a major operation. It has to be built all over again bottom up. And many young leaders will have to come up. Otherwise, it will stagnate at this level and decline in its popular base,” said G Pramod Kumar, political analyst and former advisor of the United Nations Development Programme.
