THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior Congress leader and former union minister KV Thomas has been given the charge of coordinating and organising the Tamil Nadu leg of the nationwide protest campaign to be undertaken by the party from November 5 to 15 against the ‘misrule’ of the Modi government.
Thomas was excluded from the Congress list of candidates in the 2019 general elections and he had then complained of a coterie of leaders from Ernakulam scuttling his candidature. However, with the advent of Sonia Gandhi at the helm of affairs in the Congress party, things have changed for veteran leaders, including Thomas. There are reports that Thomas might be considered as an AICC general secretary and he might be given charge of Tamil Nadu where the party is facing great challenges.
It is learnt that AICC general secretary Oommen Chandy will be shifting base to Kerala and Congress working committee member P C Chacko, who is in charge of New Delhi, has also expressed his inconvenience to continue in Delhi and wishes to return to his home turf.
With both Chandy and Chacko shifting their bases to Kerala, the announcement of Thomas as AICC general secretary is likely to be imminent.
As state Congress president, Mullappally Ramachandran insists on ‘one man, one post’, Benny Behanan, who is currently member of parliament from Chalakudy, will have to quit the post of UDF convenor. Thomas and M M Hassan were the frontrunners for the post of UDF convenor and with Thomas shifting to the national scenario and Chacko moving to Kerala, there are possibilities of the latter becoming the convenor.
“I will be coordinating the Tamil Nadu leg of the nation-wide protest march against the NDA government at the centre. I have already spoken to senior party leaders of Tamil Nadu,” Thomas told TNSE.