THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) had helped energise Congress party workers and leaders in Kerala. The inordinate delay, however, in revamping the entire state-level organisation threatens to douse the enthusiasm. Top party leaders are peeved at the prospect of killing any positive momentum and handing the advantage back to the ruling front.
The biggest challenge before the state Congress leadership was to maintain the tempo generated by BJY. By failing to feed on the zeal and continuing to drag their feet on the demand of the majority of workers for overhauling the party machinery, the top brass is letting a golden opportunity go by.
This, however, has not deterred activists from attending the protests and meetings organized by the party at various levels. The general body meeting unanimously elected K Sudhakaran to continue as the state chief.
The official announcement on his second tenure is yet to be made by the central leadership.
Senior Congress leader Sooranad Rajasekharan, who had been both a state office bearer and the Kollam district chief for nearly a decade, is disappointed at the delay in reorganising the party.
“People in the state are now up in arms against the LDF government due to the back-to-back corruption allegations. The BJP has also crumbled in the state. When the Congress should have cashed in on the situation, there is lack of enthusiasm among party workers due to the delay in revamping the organisation,” Rajasekharan said.
Sudhakaran’s dream project, Congress Unit Committees (CUCs), aimed at reviving the inactive booth committees has also not yielded desired results. A party district chief from Malabar told TNIE that CUC was an excellent concept that failed due to lack of follow-up.
“With consecutive agitations and Rahul Gandhi’s BJY the priority was changed by the majority of district committees. This led to the failure of CUCs,” another Congress leader from Malabar said. Thiruvananthapuram district chief Palode Ravi, however, maintains that 120 CUCs out of the 154 committees within his jurisdiction have been constituted.
He told TNIE that 10 to 15 households under a booth will come under a CUC which would help the party form a long-standing association with them. Following complaints from various quarters, it is reliably learnt that the state leadership is now pushing to expedite the much-sought-after revamp.