THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : At least four woman leaders - Padmaja Venugopal, Bindu Krishna, Suma Balakrishnan and Jyothi Vijayakumar - are expected to be named general secretaries in the 51-member state Congress committee.
The draft list will be submitted to the high command soon. After overlooking woman leaders for the post of district chiefs, the state leadership has been keen to increase women representation in the state committee. The political affairs committee too had called for the same.
Opposition Leader VD Satheesan, who was in Delhi, reiterated that group affiliations were not considered and all senior leaders were taken into confidence while preparing the draft list. Sources said that some 'tainted' leaders were overlooked on the instruction of party national general secretary and Kerala in-charge Tariq Anwar despite intense lobbying.
"A few tainted leaders have been lobbying. Mullappally Ramachandran had asked Anwar not to include those who have been embroiled in CBI and disproportionate assets cases in the list," a senior leader told The New Indian Express.
VT Balram may get nod, Sabarinadhan unlikely
VS Sivakumar and KS Sabarinadhan are unlikely to be included in the final list. VT Balram, Jaison Joseph and K Sivadasan Nair are the other names considered for the posts of general secretary. AV Gopinath, who had quit the party for denying him the district chief's post, is likely to be made party vice-president. State Congress president K Sudhakaran had not accepted his resignation.
Jyothi had won praise for her translation of the speeches of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra into Malayalam during their visits to the state. The draft list is likely to trigger new problems in the state unit. The state leadership had said it had held talks with senior leaders about the draft list. Satheesan went a step further to say the senior leaders must be happy this time.
However, when The New Indian Express contacted former state Congress presidents VM Sudheeran and Mullappally Ramachandran, they confirmed the incumbent leadership had not held last-minute telephonic consultations with them.
After the district chiefs were announced, Sudheeran had openly expressed his displeasure and resigned from the political affairs committee and also from the All India Congress Committee. Mullappally too had criticised the new state leadership for not taking senior leaders like him into confidence.
The state leadership, meanwhile, heeded another former president K Muraleedharan while accommodating Mariapuram Sreekumar as one of the 15 general secretaries.