THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With KPCC president V M Sudheeran remaining firm on his ‘notes and votes’ comment against the liquor lobby onTuesday also, even as a vast majority in the Congress and other UDF coalition partners are viewing his posturing as a calculated one to raise his stock of image and unique politics high in the second half of his ongoing ‘Janapaksha Yatra’, one thing which has become certain is that it is going to have a definite bearing in the forward course of the Congress in the state.
Apart from a general feeling and suspicion that Sudheeran is trying to put further pressure on the already beleaguered government, the immediate fallout will be on the remaining part of his Yatra itself, as the leaders’ line-up from the ‘A’ and ‘I’ camps are keen not to give anymore mileage to the KPCC president.
The timing of Sudheeran’s comments, a day before the High Court was billed to consider the appeal petition of the government, was also not missed. Sudheeran’s rider in his statement that the party would take a decision on ‘notes and votes’ of those associated with liquor in any manner has also left all pitted against him more guarded. It is reliably understood that any attempt to distance any particular section from the Congress under any pretext and initiate a discussion at the party level will be opposed tooth and nail, by the ‘A’ and ‘I’ groups combined.
Taking forward his stand on the bar licence renewal issue, Sudheeran stirred a hornet’s nest on Monday with his comments, forcing many, including Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, to differ in the open while leaders who are prisoners of their own image or with little mass support stamping their foot in private.
KPCC vice-president V D Satheesan MLA, who was a balancing choice of the Congress high command when he was nominated along with president Sudheeran, has rejected the stand of the latter outright.
Satheesan had even stated that Sudheeran might not be interested in contesting polls.
KPCC former president K Muraleedharan also echoed a similar opinion on Tuesday that Sudheeran had contested enough number of polls and won eight out of nine. “Money is needed wherever it is demanding and votes are essential in elections,” Muraleedharan says.
While all those who were taken aback by Sudheeran’s statement declining votes from a section asserted that none can reject the vote of any voter, a seasoned Oommen Chandy’s stand that votes cannot be declined but securing it by favouring any section is wrong, didn’t catch the deserved attention. “The Chief Minister’s stand is the most principled and democratic stand, worth debating,” a senior leader pointed out.
Sudheeran is leading a campaign supposed to strengthen the Congress and also to mobilise an approximate Rs 30 lakh from the grass roots level for organisational work. His ‘Janapaksha Yatra’ started its course three weeks ago with a slogan of less politics and addressing social and developmental issues dogging the state,including alcoholism and violence of various hues and laying stress for organic vegetable cultivation and waste management.
However, with two weeks left for the yatra’s finale, eventually what is emerging now is only the politics of sharp divide within the Congress.