THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the slugfest in state Congress witnesses a temporary ceasefire, the leaders of its various factions are planning to meet the party’s national president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi next week to lodge their displeasure against the state leadership’s unilateral stand. Even though Tariq Anwar, the party national general secretary-in-charge of Kerala, had tried to resolve the issue, the group leaders have decided to cold-shoulder him.
Leaders belonging to the two factions decided to show that they were united in the fight against the state leadership. At the same time, they want to convey that they will not take Tariq Anwar seriously.
Even though Anwar said during his visit that he had no qualms about meeting the faction leaders, they remained aloof and even abstained from attending the orientation camp in Kochi and Kozhikode.
This has antagonised the central leadership. Since the Youth Congress state president election process took centre stage, the faction leaders decided to lie low for the time being. A senior MP told TNIE that they are not keen to disturb Rahul Gandhi but want to meet Kharge.
“A majority of the MPs will be in New Delhi over the next two weeks to attend various parliamentary committee meetings. Even if we don’t go together to meet Kharge, we will seek his appointment as and when we are in the national capital. Before the mandalam presidents are appointed, we want the central leadership to direct the state unit to take corrective steps and take all stakeholders into confidence,” he said.
More than the ‘I’ group, it’s the Oommen Chandy camp which remains a wounded lot as they felt that they were completely sidelined in the block president appointments. However, the official leadership begs to differ. A leader close to state president K Sudhakaran told TNIE that factional leaders are unhappy as they couldn’t divide seats among them.