Even as the Congress in Kerala is luxuriating in its remarkable Lok Sabha election victory, the party is riven by virulent factionalism, submerged under an avalanche of complaints lodged by victorious party candidates, of active attempts at sabotage by rivals. Topping the list is senior Congress leader K. Muralidharan, who had the mortification of finishing a poor third in the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency. The infighting in the Congress found BJP candidate Suresh Gopi creating history by opening the BJP’s Lok Sabha account in Kerala.
Expectedly, Muralidharan and his supporters have complained of sabotage and non-cooperation for his humiliating defeat. Muralidharan’s ire is directed at former MP TN Prathapan and Thrissur District Congress Committee (DCC) president Jose Vallur. Suresh Gopi won the constituency because of the shift of over 86,000 Congress votes to the BJP. Muralidharan says it was Prathapan’s revenge for being replaced by Muralidharan as the Thrissur Congress candidate. As against over 4 lakh votes polled by Prathapan in 2019, Muralidharan managed to poll only 3.28 lakh votes.
Post-poll group clashes have led to the resignation of Jose and UDF’s Thrissur chairman MP Vincent. Palakkad constituency winner V K Srikantan has been given temporary charge of Thrissur DCC even as the demand for action against Prathapan, Jose and KPCC executive member and MLA Anil Akkara is gathering momentum.
Meanwhile, the police have registered cases against Jose and 20 others in connection with the clash at the Thrissur DCC office. The case was registered on a complaint by Thrissur DCC secretary Sajeevan Kuriachira, a close aide of Muralidharan. Sajeevan had complained that a group of Congressmen led by the DCC chief had attacked him. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) leadership is extremely unhappy about the unfortunate turn of events which have caused more damage to the party than the shocking defeat in the Thrissur constituency. All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary KC Venugopal has asked Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president K. Sudhakaran to conduct an enquiry into the ugly incident and submit a report.
Likewise, Shashi Tharoor, who won from Thiruvananthapuram, has complained to the Congress High Command of serious organisational lapses in Nemom, Vattiyurkavu and Kazhakoottam, assembly constituencies which form part of the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, and non-cooperation from local party leaders during his election campaign. So bad was the situation that there were no agents to man as many as 200 booths, says Tharoor.
Similarly, Adoor Prakash, who won from Attingal by a wafer-thin majority of 684 votes, also alleged non-cooperation and attempts at sabotage by local leaders. Among other Congress candidates, who complained against rivals in the party, are Rajmohan Unnithan (Kasaragod), MK Raghavan, who won from Kozhikode for a fourth time, and Ramya Haridas (Alathur), who was the only Congress candidate to lose the poll battle.
As if all this is not enough, the rift between Sudhakaran and leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan has widened. That there is no love lost between the two is an open secret. As part of the out-Sudhakaran campaign, Satheesan and supporters forced the former to contest from the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency. Their reasoning: Sudhakaran alone can retain Kannur as the CPI(M) had fielded the powerful Kannur district secretary MV Jayarajan. The anti-Sudhakaran group thought that the KPCC chief would lose. But, to their chagrin, Sudhakaran won with a comfortable majority and regained his position as KPCC chief which he had temporarily handed over to working president MM Hassan.
Satheesan and company had tried their level best to prevent Sudhakaran’s return to the top party post. But a feisty Sudhakaran frustrated their attempts with a characteristic show of assertiveness. The KPCC chief dug in his heels and is in no mood to step down. Significantly, he has the support of AICC general secretary KC Venugopal and senior Congress leaders from Kerala AK Antony and Ramesh Chennithala. The hostility between Sudhakaran and Satheesan is bound to come to a head in the days to come. And unless the party high command intervenes, the factional feud is set to take an ugly turn, affecting the chances of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) from wresting power from the CPI(M)-headed Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala. (IPA Service)
