Congress infighting in Kerala: Opportunity in crisis

The challenge isn't merely the party's old guard, but for Congress to be alert to BJP's rise and shed its ideological ambivalence

Post-1947, the Congress in Kerala followed a different political trajectory than the party at the national level. When leftists within the party had an influential say at the national level during the post-independence period, leaders known for their anti-leftism led the party in Kerala.

Seven decades down the line, the Kerala unit of the Indian National Congress is treading a path which its national leadership is afraid to take. The Congress leadership at the national level survives unscathed even after two consecutive electoral debacles, which has prompted resentment among some leaders. But that is not the case in Kerala.

After the Assembly poll debacle, the Kerala unit of the party is undergoing tumultuous changes at the organisation level. After getting a new chief, the Kerala PCC has revamped the district committees, triggering a crisis. But astute management of the current mess, both politically and organisationally, could turn out to be a blessing in disguise for the party.

The overhauling provoked former chief minister Oommen Chandy and former Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Ramesh Chennithala to oppose it. Chandy and Chennithala, though leading two different factions in the party, have united to resist the changes that the new leadership is trying to make.

With a new power centre emerging, some of the leaders, who have steadfastly stood with either Chandy or Chennithala, have shifted their allegiance making the two veteran leaders, who have controlled the party for the last two decades, jittery.

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The triumvirate that runs the party now in Kerala - PCC chief K Sudhakaran, parliamentary party leader VD Satheesan, and Rahul Gandhi's Man Friday, national general secretary, KC Venugopal - are trying to control the party structure. They are pushing the former group leaders, Chandy and Chennithala, to the margins, making redundant the factions they lead.

The three have succeeded initially, but the aggressive manner in which Chandy and Chennithala have responded to the organisational changes has complicated their task. But can the new leadership use the impending crisis to revamp the party, both organisationally and ideologically?

The Congress party weathered many organisational crises when K Karunakaran and A K Antony were at the helm of affairs. But unlike in the past, the party is currently facing an existential crisis. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerging a force to reckon with makes it imperative for the Congress party to assert its ideological position. The BJP won an 11.3 per cent vote share in the Assembly polls, and its candidates came second in nine constituencies.

Unlike the national level, the Congress in Kerala has functioned as a spearhead of various rightist organisations. With the BJP on the ascendant, the Congress cannot continue to be ideologically ambivalent. The Sabarimala issue made this evident when the Congress eventually ended up playing second fiddle to the machinations of the Hindutva groups. Despite the desperate attempts by the Congress leaders, the Sabarimala issue turned out to be a damp squib for the party during the last election.

Though the new leadership intends to make the Congress a cadre-based party, nothing has been heard from these leaders how they will assert the Congress as a centrist political party in the state. The current leadership has acted coherently against factionalism. But it has not yet stated how it will reinvent the party ideologically.

While Satheesan has earlier expressed his dislike for caste organisations, like the Nair Service Society (NSS), PCC president Sudhakaran is amicable towards these rightist organisations. Due to his vociferous anti-left position, Sudhakaran continues to be a darling among the more conservative sections in the state. How Sudhakaran's ideological affinity towards the extreme right plays out will have implications for the Congress in Kerala in the long run.

This is not to say that the current bickering in the party after the organisational changes at the district level is a non-issue. Even while the challenges posed by the once supreme leaders continue to be huge, the changes new leadership initiated has reinvigorated party cadres dampened by the successive Assembly poll debacles.

The Kerala government's alleged mishandling of the Covid-19 situation, deteriorating law and order problem, impending economic crisis have given the opposition a perfect setting for a political comeback. But it depends on how new leaders at the helm heal wounds that have surfaced after the changes carried out in the organisation.

It is not just about how they diffuse the challenges posed by Chandy and Chennithala. More important is for how long the triumvirate – Sudhakaran, Satheesan, and Venugopal - can remain united because their varying styles and approaches may come to the fore once their fight against a common foe is over.

(The writer is a Kochi-based independent journalist)