THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As local body and assembly elections are approaching, the dissonance between Congress state president K Sudhakaran and Opposition leader V D Satheesan, and the former’s health issues have come as a challenge to the Congress and the UDF which are eager to return to power after a decade-long hiatus.
After the three by-election results were announced on November 23, the KPCC is yet to convene its executive meeting to analyse the results, barring an online meeting which failed to discuss any matters in detail. This does not augur well for a party that is keen to return to power in the state, sources said.
“The Parliament session was going on till December 20. and after that there was the passing away of writer M T Vasudevan Nair and former PM Dr Manmohan Singh,” KPCC general secretary M Liju told TNIE. However, leaders alleged that there was a month’s gap between the date of the announcement of election results and the convening of the Parliament session, and this cannot be cited as a reason for not holding the executive meeting.
The leaders opposed to Satheesan’s style of functioning point out the latter’s absence in many of the programmes organised by KPCC at Indira Bhavan. However, critics also point out that Sudhakaran too was absent at the UDF high-powered committee meeting held at Cantonment House.
Meanwhile, CWC leaders Ramesh Chennithala, Shashi Tharoor and former KPCC president K Muralidharan are batting for Sudhakaran’s continuance in the post. “The political future of these leaders hinges on who succeeds Sudhakaran?” a senior leader told TNIE.
“No one wants the next KPCC president to be a close aide of Satheesan. Leaders who adopt this stance reportedly have the support of AICC organisational general secretary K C Venugopal,” he said.
Meanwhile, a large section of KPCC leaders are of the view that the question of changing Sudhakaran is not the real issue.
“The real question is whether the Congress can face the local body and assembly election with a president who has health issues,” a KPCC office-bearer told TNIE. “Considering the future of the party, the central leadership should make necessary changes,” he said.
In a fast-changing political scenario in the state Congress, the allegiance of younger leaders is the trump card projected by Satheesan. “Satheesan’s weak point is that he has no mentors or friends in the central leadership,” a Congress MLA told TNIE.
“It was also said that the post of opposition leader post was a ‘gift’ of Venugopal as he wanted to keep other CM aspirants at bay. Hence, what Satheesan is doing is winning each by-election and roping in young leaders to his fold so that the central leadership would finally be forced to recognise his clout while taking a critical decision on filling crucial posts,” he said.