THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Congress group chieftains Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala aired their grievances regarding the recent organisational revamp before AICC general secretary Tariq Anwar on Monday. The central leader is in the capital city for the official launch of the membership campaign and also to attend the induction ceremony of new office-bearers on Tuesday.
The newly chosen 56-member state office-bearers and executive committee will be taking charge at Indira Bhavan on Tuesday. Former Left fellow traveller Cherian Philip who returned to the Congress last week will be given the party membership.
In their meeting with Anwar, both Chandy and Chennithala conveyed their protest over the raw deal meted out to their loyalists by the new party state leadership. The senior leaders haven’t voiced their protest in public after the organisational revamp. Anwar who launched the membership campaign at Indira Bhavan on Monday was approached by several disgruntled leaders who were neglected during the revamp.
The factional leaders are keen on becoming a pressure force to ensure that organisational elections are held from the booth level and keep the incumbent leadership on tenterhooks. Their ploy is to delay the organisational elections as much as they can. This way, they hope to avoid the erosion of more leaders from their respective camps towards the new leadership which has got the backing of AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal.
‘A’ and ‘I’ groups plan to contest the elections as a united front and Ramesh Chennithala may be their candidate for KPCC president post. “Chennithala had already served as the state president for a decade. If he was nominated then, his plan now is to contest in the organisational elections and take control of the party with the support of the ‘A’ group. The central leadership is likely to give the responsibility of Punjab Congress unit to Chennithala. Assembly elections are due in Punjab in February 2022,” said a senior Congress leader.