Congress infighting in Kerala as new AICC representative takes charge

Thiruvananthapuram: Infighting among Congress leaders in Kerala is again coming out in the open with a senior party leader openly accusing the party state leadership during the maiden meeting attended by the new AICC general secretary in charge of Kerala, Deepa Das Munshi.

Former Kerala PCC president V M Sudheeran was openly resentful about the present state leadership of the party at the Kerala PCC executive meeting held on Saturday in the presence of Munshi. On Sunday, he came out in the open against the leadership for aggravating the issue of ‘groupism’ in the party. Sudheeran also accused Munshi of making misleading statements about him.

Kerala PCC president K Sudhakaran reacted by saying that he rejected Sudheeran’s critique of the party leadership. 

Sudheeran said that while there were only two groups in the Congress earlier, after Sudhakaran and V D Satheesan took over as Kerala PCC president and opposition leader in 2021, groupism in the party became more pronounced. He alleged that now the party had around five groups and even sub groups.

He also said that selection of candidates based on group interests was the reason for the back-to-back defeat of the Congress-led United Democratic Front in the Assembly polls. But even now the selection of district Congress committees was not being conducted in a fair manner on the basis of merit, he alleged. No discussions had taken place and the new district presidents were announced unanimously.

Sudheeran also said at the Kerala PCC executive meeting on Saturday that there was no response to a letter he sent to the party high command raising these concerns.

Sudheeran said that though party leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, had earlier assured him that action would be taken on the issues he had raised, ultimately, nothing had been done.

Sudheeran also said that Munshi made a misleading statement to the media that he (Sudheeran) left the meeting on Saturday after airing his opinions. He also criticised how the issues he had raised in the party gathering was leaked to the media.

Meanwhile, a section of senior Congress leaders had also reportedly conveyed to Munshi their differences with the party state leadership. Such cases of infighting in the party at the district levels had also come up in the maiden meeting attended by Munshi.