THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While MPs, K Muraleedharan and M K Raghavan, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, MLA, and senior leader K V Thomas have emerged as frontrunners for the post of UDF convener, trouble is brewing within the two factions over the high command keeping them in the dark regarding the appointment of the three working presidents. The main aim of the high command is to cause the disintegration of the two factions, which has left leaders here in the lurch.
Initially, Thiruvanchoor was tipped to become the Opposition leader and later the state Congress chief. After Oommen Chandy, he is the most senior MLA. This gave him an edge. But since he did not have wholehearted support of Chandy camp, he made a retreat. The party national leadership had appointed MLAs P T Thomas and T Siddique and retained MP Kodikunnil Suresh as working Congress chiefs. Incidentally, none of the state Congress leaders were consulted on the three appointments.
Thiruvanchoor told TNIE that he had never staked a claim to any of these posts. “I have always abided by whatever the party entrusted me with, which I have delivered successfully. I am not aware of what’s happening now. This is a crucial time for the Congress. Workers have high hopes in the leadership and this is the time when we should join hands to revive the party,” he said.
Muraleedharan too has not sought the support of the high command and the state leadership to emerge as the successor to UDF convener M M Hassan. He told TNIE that it is his supporters on social media who are going to town that K Sudhakaran-V D Satheesan-K Muraleedharan trio will make a good team. For long, there has been a demand that a leader from the Malabar region should be brought in as UDF convener and this has pitchforked Kozhikode MP Raghavan into the league of hopefuls.
Thomas, who was removed as working president, shares a good rapport with Sonia Gandhi. But his equations with Rahul Gandhi are not the same. A senior Congress MLA told TNIE that there is a view within the party that Hassan should be allowed to continue as he got only a limited time to lead UDF. “The truth is that these days, none of us is aware about what is happening in the party. With the aim of disintegrating the groups, the national leadership is not consulting senior leaders like before. We are in the dark as to whether Hassan will continue or some other leader will succeed him,” said the MLA.