THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the competition and one-upmanship between state Congress chief K Sudhakaran and Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan breaching the limits and threatening to dampen the spirits of party workers stirred up by the Lok Sabha poll results, many senior leaders think it’s time for the high command to intervene and rein in the two leaders.
A day after Sudhakaran snubbed him by cancelling a circular he issued in his capacity as the Congress legislature party leader, an annoyed Satheesan boycotted the Thiruvananthapuram district executive meeting, which he was scheduled to preside on Friday. The meeting was slated as part of the Congress’ ‘Mission 2025’ programme.
The two leaders have shared a strained relation for quite some time. A few days ago, the Sudhakaran camp had approached the party national leadership against Satheesan, alleging that the LoP’s loyalists had been deliberately planting stories against the KPCC chief. On Thursday, Sudhakaran had called an online meeting of KPCC office-bearers where a few general secretaries targeted Satheesan for coming up with a circular on the strategy to be adopted for local body polls.
Sudhakaran came out with a six-page circular, cancelling Satheesan’s dossier. Sudhakaran, who is in Delhi as the Parliament is in session, had no qualms in admitting there were certain issues with Satheesan. But they would be resolved soon through talks, he said. Satheesan denied issuing any circular.
‘Party must identify those who leak wrong news’
“I did not come out with a circular. The party needs to identify those leaders who leak such (wrong) news to the media. The meeting of office-bearers was held as they had to share something with the party president. It needs to be probed who is giving this news to the media,” Satheesan told reporters at Palode.
In fact, TNIE has the one-page circular issued by Satheesan on 18th July. This newspaper had reported on Thursday about Satheesan’s circular on constituting delimitation committees at the district and constituency levels as well as reporting of the Wayanad executive in lower committees.
It’s reliably learnt that Deepa Dasmunshi, AICC general secretary in charge of the state, had also held talks with the party office-bearers regarding Satheesan’s circular. A source close to the LoP said that KPCC general secretaries who feel insecure are behind the controversy.
“Satheesan had mentioned in his circular that a leader from the same district, but not from the same constituency/local body has to be entrusted with the responsibility of forming the delimitation committees. The incumbent general secretaries are apprehensive of losing their power and are behind the controversy. Now let the Congress high command intervene and resolve the issue,” said the source.
At the virtual meeting of the office-bearers held on Thursday, KPCC general secretary M J Job from Alappuzha and senior Congress MP and working president Kodikunnil Suresh rallied behind Satheesan.