THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If the Congress state unit had to grapple only with ‘I’ and ‘A’ groups till now, a third group has emerged under the powerful national general secretary (organisation), K C Venugopal, after the candidate selection for the assembly elections, to the utter dismay of party workers.
It was former Congress state president VM Sudheeran who first came up with such an allegation. It has since been taken up by party working president K Sudhakaran, MP, and also by the Oommen Chandy camp. Venugopal is learnt to have accommodated nearly a dozen of his loyalists in the candidate list which has opened a Pandora’s box in the Congress.
Since the announcement of Sajeev Joseph as the Congress candidate in the Irikkur assembly constituency kicked up a major storm in the Kannur Congress politics, with ‘A’ group leaders and workers deciding to keep away from election work if their leader Sony Sebastian is not fielded, Venugopal’s name has cropped up as the person responsible for the development.
Sajeev originally belonged to the ‘I’ group. But his work as the state Congress’ general secretary in charge of Performance Assessment System (PAS), which was initiated to grade the performance of the 14 DCC presidents, earned plaudits from the state and central party leadership. When Rahul Gandhi, MP, decided to emulate the Kerala model in the rest of the country in 2013, it was led by Sajeev.
Sajeev’s detractors allege that if not for Venugopal, he would not have got the party ticket. A section of Congress leaders alleged that P M Niyaz (Beypore), M Liju (Ambalappuzha), Sumesh Achuthan (Chittur) and Mathew Kuzhalnadan (Muvattupuzha) are just a few “two-in-one” candidates who show allegiance to both the ‘I’ group and Venugopal.
However, Congress state president Mullappally Ramachandran denied vehemently that Venugopal has formed a group. “I can vouch for Venugopal’s sincerity as he has never intervened in the candidature. He is working in the larger interest of the party. Venugopal did not argue for a single candidate including Sajeev Joseph, who got the Irikkur seat due to his extraordinary work as a party office-bearer. I would say that there has been a deliberate and calculated move from certain vested interests to start revolt against Sajeev,” Mullappally told TNIE.