Kerala Congress to dissolve jumbo committees, bring in cadre system

The first meeting of the Congress political affairs committee in Kerala after the new leadership took over has reached a consensus on doing away with the jumbo committees of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee and instead bring in a cadre system.

While at present there are 12 vice presidents, 42 general secretaries and around 100 secretaries in the Kerala PCC, new state Congress chief K Sudhakaran said that it would be replaced with a 51-member committee which will have three working presidents, three vice presidents, 15 general secretaries and around 15 secretaries. Selection will be based only on the basis of merit and the committee members should be those willing to work full-time for the party, he said.

Sudhakaran said that all leaders were unanimous that a total revamp of the party was required by dissolving 'jumbo committees'. In order to strengthen the party's connect down to the grassroots level, micro-level committees, also known as neighbourhood committees, would be constituted. It was also decided to form five regional committees to evaluate reasons for its setback in the Assembly election. Disciplinary committees would be formed at state and district levels to sternly deal with indiscipline.

Sudhakaran said that the revamp would bring in a semi-cadre structure to the party and it would be implemented in a time-bound manner.

Though there were reports that senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP K Muraleedharan kept off the meeting owing to the displeasure of a meeting of top leaders held ahead of the parliamentary affairs committee meeting, Sudhakaran denied it.