THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Though the central delegation failed in its attempt to placate senior leader VM Sudheeran and make him take back his resignation from two top party committees, there are indications that he is eying a berth in the Congress Working Committee (CWC). Senior Congress leaders A K Antony and Oommen Chandy are likely to move out of the top decision-making body. While former state Congress president Mullappally Ramachandran is also in the race for CWC membership, only one leader can find a place.
If Congress state president K Sudhakaran was not keen on Tariq Anwar, national general secretary in charge of the state, meeting Sudheeran at his home on Monday, Opposition Leader V D Satheesan wanted the two to end the “ego clash”. Sudhakaran insisted that if the central leaders were meeting Sudheeran, then they should ensure that the mission was accomplished.
However, Sudhakaran relented to Satheesan’s request to let Anwar and three national secretaries meet Sudheeran. But as expected, Sudheeran lashed out at the Congress state leadership and warned the delegation that if they didn’t take corrective steps, the party would be doomed. “With Chandy having health issues and Antony’s fifth Rajya Sabha term ending by April next year, both of them may move out of CWC. Both Sudheeran and Mullappally are eying berths in the CWC.
The former seems to have realised that Mullappally has more chances as party national general secretary K C Venugopal prefers to have him on board. Sudheeran could have told the media on Saturday itself when he stepped down from the state political affairs committee that he had also quit from the AICC,” a top Congress leader told TNIE.
Meanwhile, the state and central leaders have realised that the leader of one the two prominent Congress groups has rallied behind Sudheeran making the latter raise the banner of revolt. Earlier, the two groups’ leaders, Ramesh Chennithala and Chandy, were on a noncooperation movement with Sudheeran which had led him to step down abruptly from the Congress state president’s post in March 2017.
Satheesan and Sudhakaran were scheduled to fly to New Delhi on Wednesday. But since Rahul Gandhi is arriving in Kozhikode on Wednesday, the two have postponed their trip by a week. They will submit the probable list of 51 members of the state committee before the Congress high command in New Delhi. Satheesan will be accompanying Rahul Gandhi during his Malappuram tour on Wednesday. Anwar will be back in New Delhi next week to complete further deliberations on the second stage of organisational revamping.
SUDHAKARAN UPSET WITH BEHANAN
Chalakudy MP Benny Behanan’s statement that there was a lack of diligence from the part of K Sudhakaran has not gone down well with the Congress state chief. A photo of Sudhakaran with the controversial antique businessman Monson Mavungal had come out on Monday, following which Sudhakaran had alleged a witch hunt against him.