KOCHI: At a time when Congress state president K Sudhakaran and Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan are repeatedly claiming that Congress worked to its full potential in Chelakkara, a senior Congress official in charge of the state admitted that the party faltered in execution, with monitoring being nearly nonexistent.
P V Mohan, AICC secretary in charge of Kerala, told TNIE, “It’s not that LDF won in Chelakkara, it’s that Congress lost.” He acknowledged that despite making elaborate plans and mechanisms since the Lok Sabha elections, the party failed to execute them effectively.
Mohan, who has been camping in Kerala for the past three months, overseeing Palakkad, Thrissur, Ernakulam, Idukki, and Kottayam, noted that while the party had leaders to plan campaigns and workers, they lacked leaders to implement plans effectively. “There was no monitoring system at the mid-level,” he said.
He pointed out that the party failed to campaign effectively in the 400-odd Dalit colonies. “We could not ensure at least 3,000 votes that are sure Congress votes. The 3,000-odd votes garnered by the DMK were actually our votes. There was a decrease in the 3 per cent vote poll, which also affected us. All this cost us, not the LDF,” he added.
The facts and figures also support Mohan’s statements. While the Congress states that Chelakkara is a Red Fort, three out of nine grama panchayats are UDF forts, too. In Pazhayannur panchayat, UDF has members in 14 wards out of 22, but LDF led by 851 votes this time. In Kondazhy, UDF has eight members, but LDF won 107 more votes than UDF. Similarly, LDF has 432 votes more than Congress-ruled Thiruvilwamala.
“Frankly speaking, top leaders and local leaders felt orphaned as there was no medium-level leadership,” said a UDF panchayat president. “We have former Thrissur DCC president M P Vincent, UDF chairman Jose Valloor, KPCC working president T N Prathapan and ex-MLA Anil Akkara who know the district very well. Their contribution to the campaign should be scrutinised,” he said, adding: “The organisational structure of Congress in Thrissur is very weak.”
Pazhayannur panchayat in-charge was M P Vincent, Jose Valloor was the Thiruvilwamala panchayat in-charge while Anil Akkara was overall in-charge of the panchayats.
A win in Palakkad was a prestige issue for Shafi Parambil and V K Sreekandan, and they put all their efforts in the constituency. The same vigour was missing in Chelakkara.