THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after state Congress president K Sudhakaran levelled allegations against Opposition leader VD Satheesan and national general secretary K C Venugopal who he has accused of torpedoing the reorganisation of district congress committees, Satheesan is learnt to have conveyed his displeasure over the functioning of the president to the national leadership.
While efforts by senior leaders close to both Sudhakaran and Satheesan are on to pacify them so that the issue wouldn’t get worsened, the leaders continued to reiterate and emphasise their versions of the crisis among party leaders. Congress Working Committee member A K Antony, who is in the capital city, did not hide his disappointment at the latest turn of events.
It is learned that Satheesan conveyed his displeasure to Sudhakaran over phone as the latter issued an unofficial statement blaming him for the delay in announcing the draft list of district committee office-bearers and block presidents to media late on Tuesday. The development was communicated to national leadership as well.
According to sources close to Satheesan what had escalated the issue was Sudhakaran’s appointment of a proxy leader to vet the list of office-bearers submitted by general secretaries in charge of all districts. Sensing the danger hidden in the move, Satheesan alerted the national leadership. However, the blame was put on three Congress MPs though their nominees found place in the draft list. A senior Congress leader told TNIE that if K C Venugopal had not intervened, Sudhakaran’s list would have created further damage to the party.
“There are several acceptable senior leaders in the Congress who should have been asked to scrutinise the draft list like old times. Sudhakaran could motivate party workers and was successful in highlighting the wrong policies of Narendra Modi and Pinarayi Vijayan governments. But he failed in his attempt to reorganise the party structure. But it’s still not late,” said a senior Congress leader.
Antony who is here for a week told the leaders who called on him at his house here about the “immaturity” shown by the state leadership, especially about the so-called group meeting Satheesan had convened. However, Antony is not in a mood to intervene in the issue.
On Wednesday, Satheesan told reporters in Kannur that all was well between him and Sudhakaran. He reached the capital and sources said a meeting between both leaders might take place soon. The resolution of the crisis seems to be tricky with Sudhakaran determined to go ahead with the existing list and Satheesan demanding to change some names.
No issues with Sudhakaran, problems will be solved through talks: Satheesan
Kannur: Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan has said there is no conflict between him and Congress state president K Sudhakaran on the reorganisation of party district committees. Speaking to reporters at Pattuvam near Taliparamba on Wednesday, he said all problems related to the party reorganisation would be resolved amicably through discussion. He was at Pattuvam to inaugurate the stone-laying ceremony of houses built in memory of martyr S P Shuhaib organised by Youth Congress district committee.
“Be it is an election or consensus, I too have the same opinion as that of the KPCC president. I am ready for either of it. As of now, we hope that all issues could be resolved through discussion. In the Congress, we can’t take a stand like in the CPM in which Pinarayi Vijayan takes out a paper from his pocket and announces it as the party decision,” said Satheesan. “In the Congress, we will take into consideration all aspects raised by leaders,” he said. “The CPM is moving to the right, abandoning its left ideology, and it is ready to embrace Pinarayi’s policies,” he said.