THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The rout in the assembly elections is much more than the Congress has calculated. Though the Congress leadership had gone to town proclaiming to bring in 55 per cent new faces in their candidature list, not a single one of them tasted victory. Heads will roll in the party.
Despite putting in an impressive role as the Opposition leader, the majority of Congress leaders are targeting Ramesh Chennithala for hijacking the party. K Babu, who won from the Tripunithura assembly constituency, was the first leader to have hinted at a change of guard in the party.
In the coming days, former party presidents V M Sudheeran and K Muraleedharan, the latter having been trounced in Nemom and pushed to the third position behind the BJP, as well as Kannur MP K Sudhakaran are expected to take cudgels against the party.
Senior Congress leaders who have been sidelined by the party in the candidature are now seething at the poll debacle. A majority of them are unhappy with the way Chennithala had ignored them and instead brought in young blood which had backfired. But Chennithala alone cannot be blamed as it was a “collective decision” by Congress state president Mullappally Ramachandran and senior leader Oommen Chandy.
“The majority of the decisions were taken by the trio as well as K C Venugopal, central Congress general secretary (organisation). But the latter came to the centre stage only at the fag end after the crucial decisions were taken by the trio. When was the last time these leaders had taken everyone into confidence?” asked a party vice-president.
All central Congress leaders were in shock at the dismal show and remained tight lipped on Sunday. Despite Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi holding road shows and corner meetings, these did not help them gain votes.
“We accept the people’s mandate humbly. Sincere gratitude to our workers & the millions of people who supported us on the ground. We will continue to fight for our values and ideals,” tweeted Rahul Gandhi. The only consolation for the Congress is that the BJP has been routed or else the party workers would have flocked to it.