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Problems in Kerala Cong ironed out: PCC chief
He was talking to newsmen in New Delhi after a three-hour marathon meeting of party MPs from the state convened by party general secretary K C Venugopal.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K Sudhakaran on Tuesday said all problems in the party’s state unit have been “settled” and the leaders will maintain discipline and work together for the party’s victory in next year’s parliament elections.
He was talking to newsmen in New Delhi after a three-hour marathon meeting of party MPs from the state convened by party general secretary K C Venugopal. “There were some misunderstandings and we talked in detail and solved them. All will work in tandem to strengthen the party,” he said.
Things came to a flashpoint on Monday after the PCC issued letters to two MPs, M K Raghavan and K Muraleedharan, for airing their views in public. Both questioned the PCC president’s decision and many MPs later complained to the party high command against the PCC president. The party high command later asked Venugopal to convene a meeting of MPs.
Party insiders, privy to the matter, said the high command has given strict instructions to the PCC president and other leaders to “maintain discipline and work as a single unit”.
They said many MPs criticised what they called “dictatorial style of functioning” of the PCC president but the latter justified his action saying “discipline was paramount and he did it in the larger interests of the party”. MPs said they were “not consulted” while announcing the PCC list and people close to the state president and opposition leader V D Satheesan “were accommodated while ignoring many senior aspirants”. AICC general secretary Tariq Anwar will visit the state soon, people quoted above said.
Unrest was brewing in the party over the way 60 PCC members were selected by the state president and opposition leader V D Satheesan just before the Congress plenary session in Raipur. But both maintained that members were selected not on the basis of faction or group but their qualification and organisational prowess mattered. Many senior leaders, including Kodikunnil Suresh (MP) had expressed serious reservations over the revamp of the PCC.
Following the assembly election debacle in 2021, the party had made a major change in the state unit ignoring two powerful groups, one led by Oommen Chandy and other by senior leader Ramesh Chennithala, and brought in a new PCC head and opposition leader. Though both swear they have no factions but opponents say they reward only people close to them.
