KOCHI: His continuation as the state Congress president all but confirmed, the biggest challenge that K Sudhakaran faces is revamping the KPCC and district Congress committees while sticking to the three-month deadline and overcoming the faction and lobbies at work within the party.
Should the revamp happen, a few KPCC functionaries and DCC chiefs would be removed following a performance review. On his part, Sudhakaran has seemingly began working towards the revamp. In New Delhi for the Parliament session, he has called an online meeting of KPCC office-bearers on Saturday to review the situation ahead of the reorganisation.
Though his focus had been on completing the revamp when he was appointed KPCC chief in 2021, soon after the Congress’ defeat in the assembly elections, his attempts were torpedoed allegedly by the AICC general secretary K C Venugopal-Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan axis. The ‘A’ and ‘I’ factions in the Congress led by former chief minister Oommen Chandy and former leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala, respectively, were dissatisfied with the appointment of KPCC functionaries and DCC presidents.
Sources in the party told TNIE that it is possible these factions may thwart Sudhakaran from carrying out the job freely and fairly this time too. They also recalled that the decision taken at the Chintan Shivir in Kozhikode, to complete the revamp of committees from the booth to the block level by October, was in cold storage too.
When contacted, a senior Congress leader ruled out reports of any chances of undermining the reorganisation, but admitted that completing the process within three months is a challenge. “At present, KPCC has to conduct events to spread the message of the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra across the state. The reorganisation is planned keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It does not mean a total revamp,” said the leader.