After a long period of truce, the simmering feud between KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has come out into the open with the former lashing out against Chandy. “The party-government axis will never be the same again. The Chief Minister can go his way and I will go my way. There will not be a compromise anymore,” a furious Ramesh told ‘Express’.
With this outburst, it is clear that the flare-up in the Congress over the issue of non-induction of Chennithala into the Cabinet with a befitting portfolio and even more critical, the humiliation felt by the ‘broad I’ faction in the process, is reaching such a level that any attempt at rapprochement is likely to be futile. “Can anyone point out that I had put hurdles in the way of Chandy in running the government? All including the Chief Minister know that I was not after ministership. By the end of the Kerala Yatra, I was approached again and again with pleas to join the government. But now I understand that it was all done to humiliate me and nothing else,” Ramesh said.
The ‘broad I’ faction has converted the move to reinduct K B Ganesh Kumar into the Cabinet within less than two months since the ‘sleaze-turned domestic’ row into a double-edged weapon against Chandy and the ‘A’ faction. This is surely going to lead to a situation where even R Balakrishna Pillai could turn against Chandy. Because, if Chandy makes any unilateral move and overlooks the severe objection of the ‘I’ faction on the issue, it will help Ramesh and team to open new frontiers in the factional war.