After poll debacle, revamp talk gets stronger in Kerala Congress

Party insiders said a major surgery is unlikely as the state is set to go for the assembly elections in four months.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Tariq Anwar, who is in Kerala to examine the recent local body election debacle, is flooded with complaints and many leaders have sought leadership change in the state unit.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Tariq Anwar.(ANI)

After the defeat in local body elections, senior leaders have trained their guns on state president Mullapally Ramachandran, opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and convenor of the United Democratic Front MM Hassan.

Party insiders said a major surgery is unlikely as the state is set to go for the assembly elections in four months, but some of the district presidents may get axed soon. Anwar has asked leaders not to wash dirt in pubic and maintain the party discipline.

During his two-day stay, leaders of allies will also meet the AICC general secretary. Some of them have already asked the lead party (Congress) to set its house in order and patch up differences between senior leaders. They have asked the party leadership to bring former chief minister Oommen Chandy to the front but the latter has shown least interest. They feel his popularity and connect with common people will help the party to overcome the latest setbacks.

The party leadership is quite upset with the poll outcome - in last general election in 2019, the UDF had managed 19 out of 20 Lok Sabha seats. The local body elections took place in the backdrop of mounting challenges to ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led government of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, whose secretary is in jail and a minister was questioned by law enforcement agencies several times in connection with a gold smuggling racket uncovered in July.

Besides this, party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was forced to proceed on leave after his son was arrested in connection with a narcotics haul in Bengaluru. Many central agencies had also pitched their tents in the state, probing a series of alleged kickbacks. Though the Congress and the BJP tried their best to exploit these sensational cases, the LDF pulled off a victory literally shocking the party leadership.

“The party will have to do a serious re-thinking on its strategy and bring more young leaders to the fore. Otherwise, local body outcome will be repeated in assembly elections also,” warned a senior leader from Malabar, adding time was ripe for the party to end growing factionalism. Many leaders feel that the distribution of seats based on groups did a major damage and there were no sincere effort to convince rebel candidates at many places.

What really worries the leadership is that some of the traditional vote banks, like Christian heartland in central Travancore, ditched the party badly. Though state leaders dismissed it as a temporary setback, the party is in no mood to take it lightly. It has asked the state unit to get ready for assembly elections and start searching for suitable candidates. The AICC general secretary has reportedly warned leaders that the party was supreme, not groups.