THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Escalating its fight against the state Congress chief, the ‘A’ group, with the tacit support of a section in the ‘I’ group, has decided to approach the party high command against K Sudhakaran’s “autocratic style of functioning”.
The move comes in the wake of Sudhakaran revoking interim Congress state president M M Hassan’s decision to reinstate ‘A’ group leader and then KPCC secretary M A Latheef, who was suspended from the primary membership of the party.
Latheef said he would soon approach AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal. “I’ve been waiting for the last two years for the party to reconsider my suspension. I did not ditch the Congress and join another party. After Hassan was given charge, I made a representation requesting him to reconsider the disciplinary action. Before that, I had met K C Joseph and Benny Behanan. The letter informing me of my re-induction into the party came by post two days after the polling (for the Lok Sabha election),” he told TNIE.
Latheef said he decided to approach the KPCC leadership after meeting Venugopal and Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan.
M M Hassan exceeded brief, say leaders close to Sudhakaran
“Later, I tried to meet Sudhakaran, but he was not interested,” Latheef said. The ‘A’ group has been for long demanding the revocation of Latheef’s suspension. Former chief minister Oommen Chandy had tried to intervene, but poor health prevented him from taking matters forward. ‘A’ group leaders say a consensus to review the suspension was reached at a meting they had with Venugopal and Satheesan.
“This has been breached by Sudhakaran,” an ‘A’ group leader said. “Sudhakaran and the coterie around him are taking it as an ego issue. How can he overrule a decision taken by the former KPCC president without the consent of the leadership? Hassan decided with the consent of both Satheesan and Venugopal,” he added. However, leaders close to Sudhakaran accused Hassan of exceeding his brief in reinstating Latheef. “He was given the charge on a temporary basis. He should not have acted like the KPCC president. His role was to manage the campaigning for Lok Sabha polls,” they claim.