THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major snub to K Sudhakaran, the Congress high command intervened at the last minute restraining him from announcing the reorganisation of the district committees. An enraged state Congress president threatened to resign on Tuesday, exposing the new faultline that has formed in Congress in Kerala with Sudhakaran on one side and AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal and Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan on the other.
Congress national general secretary Tariq Anwar, who is in charge of Kerala, directed Sudhakaran to put the announcement of the new office-bearers at the district level on hold. Sudhakaran was completely unaware of the late developments until Anwar told him that three MPs had levelled complaints against the proposed list which he had finalised after holding discussions for more than 45 days with all stakeholders.
Sudhakaran suspects Venugopal & Satheesan connived with MPs
The twist in tale prompted Sudhakaran to suspect the role of Venugopal and Satheesan who he believed had connived with MPs Benny Behanan, M K Raghavan and T N Prathapan for coming up with tailor-made complaints to upset the organisational revamp plan. Sudhakaran wrote a strongly worded letter to the national leadership, detailing the “transparent and impartial process” he had followed to finalise the names.
The MPs are learnt to have told the central leadership that the proposed office-bearers in their districts concerned are so weak that their appointment may even lead to losing the seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.Sudhakaran expressed “strong displeasure” over the “undemocratic” way in which the high command intervened in the issue.
Sudhakaran even threatened to relinquish the post as he does not want to cling on if there is no operational freedom. “Had there been grievances from the MPs, that should have been brought to my notice so that corrective measures could be initiated,” Sudhakaran wrote.
He had asked the state general secretaries in charge of various districts to come up with a panel of names to be considered for district committees and for the posts of block presidents. From a jumbo list of 200 leaders, Sudhakaran and general secretaries T U Radhakrishnan and K Jayanth had shortlisted 60 names. Leaders of ‘A’ and ‘I’ groups also cooperated wholeheartedly in the exercise.
A senior Congress leader close to Sudhakaran said the last-minute coupe was a handiwork of Venugopal. “If Venugopal is the chairman of the recently emerged group in the party, Satheesan is the mentor and A P Anil Kumar MLA is the CEO . Eight days ago, Sudhakaran had handed over the draft list for 10 districts to Satheesan. Lists for remaining four districts were given to him on Monday,” said the leader. Satheesan did not respond to the allegations.