Congress a divided house in poll-bound states

Veteran leader and Rahul Gandhi confidant P C Chacko's exit from the Congress in the midst of a high-pitched election campaign came as a shocker for the party

Fighting an existential battle in the five assembly elections, Congress appears to be a divided house with defections and differences becoming the norm in poll-bound states.

Veteran leader and Rahul Gandhi's confidant P C Chacko's exit from the Congress in the midst of a high-pitched election campaign came as a shocker for the party which recently had to work overtime to win over former union minister K V Thomas, who too was unhappy with the party.

While Congress President Sonia Gandhi's intervention saw 74-year-old Thomas being appointed as the Working President of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, there were no such efforts to stop 74-year-old Chacko.

Read | Factionalism is the bane of Congress in Kerala, says P C Chacko after resignation

Congress in Kerala is divided into two factions helmed by former chief minister Oommen Chandy and senior leader Ramesh Chennithala. Young leaders in the party were also demanding a respectable share in the election tickets but were apprehensive of being upstaged by the seniors.

In Assam, former Lok Sabha member Sushmita Dev is miffed because of the party's decision to enter into a coalition with All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) led by Maulana Badruddin Ajmal.

Read | Assam election will be a conflict of civilisation: BJP

Dev, president of the All India Mahila Congress, represented Silchar in the Lok Sabha, a constituency that has a sizeable population of Matua community comprising refugees from Bengal. The BJP has made inroads in Silchar, the key town of Barak Valley where AIUDF too wields considerable influences.

Dev had stormed out of a meeting last week for selection of candidates for the elections, triggering buzz about her imminent exit from the Congress. The state Congress had issued hurried clarifications about Dev still being with the party.

The attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram also exposed the differences in the senior Congressleadership. While West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury slammed Banerjee for resorting to “political gimmick”, former union minister Manish Tewari expressed concern and wished her a speedy recovery.

Watch | Mamata trying to gain sympathy by making excuses of attack: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury

“This is political nicety. Pranab Mukherjee would have been proud of his illustrious son,” Tewari said referring to Abhijit Mukherjee wishing Banerjee a speedy recovery.

Earlier, the differences within the Congress on joining hands with Indian Secular Front of Furfura Sharif cleric Abbasuddin Siddiqui had come to the fore.