THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the spat between party veteran V M Sudheeran and state Congress chief K Sudhakaran reaching a flash point, the party high command has intervened and sought a report from the state leadership on the issue.
Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan will meet party president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi on Thursday and brief him on the developments, highly placed Congress sources said. The Congress national leadership holds Sudheeran in high esteem as it is aware of his unblemished image among the public.
“Satheesan will be closeted with Kharge, AICC general secretary in-charge of Kerala Deepa Dasmunshi and her predecessor Tariq Anwar. The high command does not want to ruffle the feathers of Sudheeran as he is quite popular across the state and also has got a huge fan following in social media which the other senior leaders cannot boast of. His grievance against Sudhakaran is about his style of functioning,” a Congress source from New Delhi told TNIE.
Since Sudhakaran is away in the US for treatment, he will not be attending Thursday’s meeting in Delhi.
A top Congress leader in Kerala said, “Satheesan shares a cordial relation with Sudheeran. But Satheesan is unhappy with the way Sudheeran had painted Sudhakaran in a bad light about his health. The senior leader was highly critical of the Congress’ economic policy and also of the party taking a soft stand on Hindutva.”
The rank and file in the Congress is upset with the latest turn of events at a time when the party should be working unitedly when the Lok Sabha election is just a few months away.