Congress veterans from two prominent factions that had historically jockeyed for primacy in Kerala have joined hands to take on a “dictatorial third group” comprising the state party president and the leader of the Opposition over differences in the reconstitution of the party’s block presidents.
Senior leaders from the Congress A and I groups, including Ramesh Chennithala, M.M. Hassan, Benny Behanan, K.C. Joseph and M.K. Raghavan, held a closed-door meeting at a hotel in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday, defying last-ditch attempts by party president K. Sudhakaran to dissuade them.
The two groups have struck a discordant note with Sudhakaran and leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan, whom they accuse of being “dictatorial” for the manner in which they reconstituted the leadership at the block level, which are smaller units within each district.
Party sources on Saturday said the Congress A and I leaders were planning to fly to Delhi and meet party president Mallikarjun Kharge to air their grievances. Taking the seriousness of the matter into account, AICC general secretary in charge of the state Tariq Anwar is expected to be in Kerala for three days from June 12.
The coming together of the Congress A and I groups in Kerala have dealt a body blow to the national leadership’s ongoing mission to get all state units to galvanise the grassroots and prepare for the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha polls less than a year away.
The Congress I, where the “I” stands for Indira Gandhi, emerged in 1978 under the leadership of K. Karunakaran. It identified its members as hardcore loyalists of Indira Gandhi. Chennithala, K. Sudhakaran, K. Muraleedharan and Satheesan were part of this group.
Those including A.K. Antony who joined the Congress (Urs) in 1979, led by former chief minister of Karnataka Devraj Urs, later came to be known as the A group in Kerala. Leaders such as Oommen Chandy and Hassan are part of this group.
Although the Congress eventually became a unified whole, leaders from Kerala remained identified with these two groups that often worked at cross purposes.
The emergence of Sudhakaran and Satheesan as leaders of the state unit and legislative party, respectively, has effectively given rise to the third power centre although both leaders have sought a party without factions.
What led to the latest tussle was the manner in which Sudhakaran finalised the list of the 283 block presidents last week. He had on June 2 finalised the names of 170 block presidents, barring those in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam and Malappuram, where more than two names were under consideration in each block. While Sudhakaran and Satheesan were expected to take the leaders of the two groups into confidence before finalising the final list, they allegedly ignored them.