Kerala Congress' faction feud saga continues, even after restructuring

The change of guard in the Congress in Kerala, effected after the drubbing the party got in the recent Assembly elections, is yet to deliver any positive sign of revival of the party unit.

While the old warhorses are reluctant to accept the leadership change, the new leadership is trying to curb the deep-rooted groupism in the party overnight. There have been many fallouts. Popular senior party leaders are openly expressing resentment over being sidelined, new power centres have emerged in the party, and groupism remains a reality. Many prominent local leaders have bid goodbye to the party. Some of them have joined the CPM.

If it was the social engineering by the first Pinarayi Vijayan government that forced the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) to remain in the opposition benches for a second consecutive term, the corrective measures initiated by the Congress seem to have been influenced more by the buzz on social media than by ground realities.

While the call for leadership change in Kerala Congress after the defeat in the Assembly elections came from within the party, the campaigns for making Lok Sabha MP K Sudhakaran the Kerala PCC president and V D Satheesan the leader of Opposition, were more aggressive on social media than within the party, feels a section in the party.

Even as AICC general secretary Tariq Anwar is in charge of Kerala, it is AICC general secretary in charge of organisational affairs, K C Venugopal, considered Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Man Friday’, who is said to be strategising the party affairs in Kerala. Venugopal, a former minister in Kerala, is said to be setting the stage for his return to Kerala politics.

While the prime task of the new leadership was to curb groupism, the outcome has so far been only to change the group equations, not eliminate them, and the emergence of fresh power centres under the new leadership. Factions have been a reality in Kerala Congress for decades.

Former chief ministers K Karunakaran and A K Antony were the prominent faction leaders earlier, and Ramesh Chennithala and Oommen Chandy succeeded them. Sharing of party positions and seats in elections among those loyal to them was the major criticism against these group leaders.

The new state leadership of the Congress literally burnt its fingers as it tried to sideline the senior group leaders overnight. Though suggestions from senior leaders like Chandy and Chennithala were sought during the selection of new district party presidents, the seniors expressed their resentment over not being consulted on the state unit’s final recommendations to the AICC. Sudhakaran and Satheesan, both known for plain-speaking, tried to pooh-pooh the resentment of the senior leaders openly.

However, as the state leadership started feeling the heat of the resentment, they had to knock on the doors of the veteran leaders and make a call for unity.

“Chandy and Chennithala are leaders who have emerged through the Congress’ organisational structure. The loyalty they earned was mainly from within the party. Hence, it is not easy to sideline them overnight. The new leadership should try to take them along,” says political analyst Jacob George.

Meanwhile, political analyst C A Josukutty says that the unwillingness of the old warhorses to accept the new leadership is also a reason for the present crisis.

As the new leadership tried to take the prominent group leaders Chandy and Chennithala along, other seniors like former Kerala PCC presidents Mullappally Ramachandran and V M Sudheeran, who have their own groups in the party, came out in the open against the new leadership, especially for succumbing to the other groups’ pressures in the ongoing selection of state and district office-bearers.

The new state leadership is being widely criticised for the lack of efforts to plug the exit of many prominent local leaders. At least five such leaders quit the party in a month’s time, accusing the leadership of neglecting their merit in the selection of new office-bearers. “Known trouble-shooters in the party like Chandy should have been actively engaged by the new leadership to stop the party’s prominent leaders bidding adieu,” said a Congress leader.

The faction feud in the party is quite visible now, with a section making critical remarks targeting Kerala PCC president Sudhakaran after his links with a fake antique merchant, Monson Mavunkal, came out. Due to the organisational weaknesses, the party’s women’s wing, the Kerala Mahila Congress has remained headless over the last six months. Its former president Lathika Subash left the party after tonsuring her head in protest against the denial of the Assembly election seat.

Political analysts say that the weakening of the Congress was quite evident as Christians and Muslims are distancing themselves from the party. The recent ‘narcotic jihad’ remark of a prominent Christian bishop could be seen as an attempt of the prominent community to please the BJP. The CPM is trying to build rapport with the minority communities by intervening in their issues as well as by taking strong positions against the BJP’s Hindutva agenda. The erosion in Congress’s minority vote banks was visible in the recent election.

“A weak Congress party could not take strong positions on communally sensitive issues. From the Sabarimala women’s entry issue to the ‘narcotic jihad’ row are many instances where the Congress was seen to dilly-dally,” says Josukutty.

The crisis in Kerala Congress attracts national attention now as Rahul Gandhi is a Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad in the state. Congress leaders now have to make a choice — whether to protect their vested interests or unitedly take up the uphill task of reviving the party.