THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Pouring cold water on K Sudhakaran’s plan to resume charge as the state Congress chief immediately, the party national leadership has advised him to be patient. The high command’s edict has come at a time when the air is thick with speculations that the old warhorse is unlikely to be reinstated as the Congress president in Kerala.
The Congress leadership claims there is no confusion on bringing back the 75-year-old leader at the helm of state Congress. But sources say there’s a concerted effort by a section of leaders to block his reentry. They want interim president M M Hassan to continue in office till June 4. A peeved Sudhakaran has repeatedly sought AICC general secretary K C Venugopal’s view on the issue. Venugopal has apparently asked Sudhakaran’s emissary to wait till the third phase election gets over on Tuesday. Following this, Sudhakaran cancelled his scheduled hospital visits for eye treatment.
While Venugopal has asked Sudhakaran to wait for a few more days, AICC general secretary in-charge of the state Deepa Dasmunshi is adamant that he should wait until the LS poll procedure gets over on June 4.
An AICC leader told TNIE that it’s evident that even if UDF makes a clean sweep or not, they don’t want Sudhakaran to walk away with the credit. This has not only dampened the spirits of Sudhakaran, but has left him deeply upset.
‘Not in a hurry to resume my role’
Sudhakaran took to Facebook on Monday stating that he is not in a hurry to resume his role. “I’ve never gone after positions when I had worked for the party, compromising on my life, spanning several decades. Whenever the Congress high command asks me to resume my role, I will take over it. I’m in no hurry to take over,” wrote Sudhakaran.
He feels that he has been insulted as he was planning to resume his duties as KPCC chief from Sunday. A source close to Sudhakaran said the leader feels the national leadership has been sidelining him.
“Sudhakaran was at the helm of the party for almost three years, and Hassan was in office for a month. The latter has been given undue preference. If the AICC leadership is eager to remove Sudhakaran, they can do so. But it’s evident that there is a concerted effort to give credit for LS poll results to Hassan so that the ‘A’ group is appeased. The attempt is to make sure that Sudhakaran does not get his due as KPCC chief,” said the source.
Senior Congress leader K Muraleedharan has been targeting Sudhakaran for the last few days, blaming organisational lapses in the Lok Sabha election. The Sudhakaran camp feels that Muraleedharan’s allegations have stemmed from a larger conspiracy led by a group of young Turks which has got the blessings of a section of ‘A’ group leaders.