THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as Shashi Tharoor and Ramesh Chennithala are hitting headlines as possible inclusions in the Congress Working Committee, senior leader Mullappally Ramachandran seems set for a wild-card entry to the party’s highest decision- making body.
Highly placed party sources said Mullappally, besides being inc luded in the 25-member CWC, is also expected to replace A K Antony as chairman of the disciplinary committee of the All India Congress Committee.
“Mullapally has always been in the good books of the high command. He had meticulously handled the role of the party’s central election authority chairman when Rahul Gandhi emerged as the Congress president. Now, time has come for the central leadership to give him his due for being a staunch loyalist to three generations of the Gandhi family, in the form of a CWC berth and also being named as chairman of the disciplinary panel,” a top Congress leader told TNIE.
Ever since stepping down as Congress president in Kerala after the 2021 assembly poll debacle, Mullappally has been keeping a low profile, and mostly focusing on Vadakara. The former union minister and seven-term MP shares a strained releationship with his successor K Sudhakaran.
How ever, that doesn’t mean that Tharoor’s fate is sealed. There are still chances of him being included in the CWC as a special invitee, sources said. There are fervent calls to increase the strength of the body from 25 to 30 at the 85th plenary summit beginning in Raipur on Friday. Ramesh Chennithala and K C Venugopal are almost certain to be included, sources said. Venugopal is already in the CWC.
‘Raipur chalo’
A huge contingent of Congress leaders from Kerala will leave for Raipur on Thursday. A K Antony, Oommen Chandy and V M Sudheeran are not attending the meet.