THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The political affairs committee meeting of the state Congress scheduled for Wednesday will discuss a proposal to give responsibilities to all 92 candidates fielded by the party in the recent assembly elections in their respective constituencies to energise the cadre and ensure victory of its candidates in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. This way, the party thinks that there will be accountability and commitment among the leaders instead of chasing only the party ticket during elections.
Congress Working Committee leader A K Antony had come up with the proposal of ‘one man, one post’ policy in 2009 which was implemented after seven years at the national level. Though this was introduced in the state Congress unit too, it had not been implemented fully. Following the assembly poll debacle, several senior leaders had blamed the jumbo committees for the party’s sad state of affairs. State Congress president K Sudhakaran, MP, has already proposed a 51-member committee comprising youth, newcomers and women. One way to keep leaders who seek party candidature at the time of elections at bay is to give them responsibilities of nursing their respective constituencies. Senior Congress leader Sooranad Rajasekharan had proposed this formula which got wide acceptance among the party leadership.
“Look at how former Youth Congress vice-president C R Mahesh had nursed his Karunagappally constituency after tasting defeat in the 2016 assembly elections. He ensured his presence in the constituency as a public leader throughout the last five years which saw him emerging victorious in the recent assembly elections,” Rajasekharan told TNIE.As Sudhakaran plans to complete the organisational revamping in the next two months, it will also see district congress committees getting overhauled. Opposition leader V D Satheesan who went to New Delhi met with Rahul Gandhi, MP, on Tuesday and discussed the guidelines ahead of the PAC meeting.