THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The appointment of four Youth Congress leaders from Kerala as national general secretaries has escalated the infighting in the state unit. While the national leadership has appointed Binu Chulliyil, Jinshad Jinnas, Sreelal Sreedhar and V K Shibina to the post, the omission of former KSU state president and Youth Congress state general secretary K M Abhijith has irked his loyalists who allege foul play by state president Rahul Mamkootathil, MLA, and Shafi Parambil, MP.
The new general secretaries were selected on the basis of their performances at a Youth Congress camp held in Chhattisgarh a few months ago. Though Binu, Sreelal and Shibina attended the camp, it is alleged that Jinshad had not.
“According to current practice, only those who participated in the camp are to be considered for appointment as national office-bearers. But in the appointment of Jinshad, this was violated,” a Youth Congress state office-bearer told TNIE on condition of anonymity.
The section supporting Abhijith alleged that though he too is from ‘A’ group, he was dropped because of his association with Kozhikode MP M K Raghavan. “Raghavan is known to be close to Shashi Tharoor, who on the other hand has allegedly been blacklisted by leaders across all groups,” a Youth Congress state committee member said.
Moreover, the Kozhikode district leaderships of both the Youth Congress and the Congress were against including Abhijith in the higher committee. At the same time, it is also learnt that Raghavan has already complained to the national Congress leadership against Abhijith’s omission.
Of the four leaders selected, Sreelal -- who is a Youth Congress state general secretary -- is from the ‘I’ group and close to Ramesh Chennithala. Binu and Shibina are close to Congress general secretary K C Venugopal. Binu is a former state general secretary of the youth wing while Shibina is a serving general secretary. Meanwhile, Jinshad, who too is a state general secretary, is said to be very close to Rahul Mamkootathil and Shafi Parambil.
The section opposing the Youth Congress state leadership has also alleged that Abhjith’s name was dropped from the list because of the pressure from some state leaders. However, Mamkootathil -- the Youth Congress state president -- told this newspaper the state unit has no role in selecting national office-bearers.
“We are not consulted. However, I’m of the view that Abhijith should have been included, and we were informed that he will be in the list. We don’t know what happened,” Rahul said.
He also dismissed the charge that Jinshad did not participate in the camp. “He had attended the camp earlier and didn’t have to participate in this camp. Hence, he too is eligible,” the Youth Congress state president said. Rahul, however, was severely criticised for his style of functioning at the district meetings in Idukki, Kozhikode and Wayanad.
The district leaders said Rahul is behaving like an autocrat in the organisation, sources said. “He is also accused of being undemocratic and not permitting members to question him. There was also an allegation that, after becoming an MLA, he had no time for organisational work,” said a source.
Such meetings were held in 11 districts.
Dismissing the reports, Rahul said, “If I’m an autocrat, why should I meet the leaders holding the post of mandalam presidents from each assembly segment in each district. No one has accused me of being an autocrat. This is the first time the state president is meeting leaders from the mandalam level. Of course, discussions were held at the meetings.”