THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress High Command is set to undertake the organisational revamping directly in the State.
The top leadership is peeved with state president K Sudhakaran and Opposition Leader V D Satheesan for lack of consultations with senior leaders while making crucial party decisions. That's the reason why the high command has led them to take this extreme step.
In a highly confidential report pending before Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, a slew of recommendations has been put forth by the AICC office bearers.
The recommendations include four District Congress Committee presidents among 14 DCCs and 11 among 21 general secretaries who have to be removed from office. They are purportedly either underperforming, tainted or not risen to the expectations of the AICC.
During July, the two AICC secretaries in charge of the state, Perumal Viswanath and P V Mohan were huddled with the DCC and KPCC office bearers to take stock of their performance during the last three years.
However, they realised that except for Ernakulam, Kannur and Malappuram DCCs, the remaining have cut a sorry figure. Former Thrissur DCC president Jose Valloor was forced to step down from office due to the poll debacle in the Lok Sabha election there which saw the BJP opening its account.
Currently, Palakkad MP V K Sreekandan is holding charge of Thrissur DCC. Since Sreekandan took over the mantle recently, his performance as Thrissur DCC president was not taken into consideration.
A top Congress source told TNIE that the Congress High Command has been upset with the state leadership for not going by its claim citing that they will take all the senior leaders into confidence, which never happened.
“Until now Sudhakaran and Satheesan have been squeezing in their loyalists which are no longer going to be tolerated by the party High Command. The three KPCC working presidents - Kodikunnil Suresh MP, T Siddique MLA and T N Prathapan will also be removed from office,” a party source told TNIE.
“While Kodikunnil is a Congress Working Committee member and also the party’s chief whip in Lok Sabha, Siddique is a legislator from Kalpetta. Siddique will be getting busy in the coming months due to the imminent Wayanad Lok Sabha by-election. A majority of the local leaders in Thrissur are up in arms against Prathapan which does not keep him in good stead to continue as KPCC working president,” the source added.
Among the four incumbent KPCC vice-presidents, 56-year-old V P Sajeendran and 47-year-old V T Balram have been exceptional. The other two, N Sakthan and V J Poulose have been termed as non influential among the Nadar community and also medically unfit to continue in the party respectively.
Another shocking aspect is about the poor performance of its 11 KPCC general secretaries which includes two women leaders. The role of the KPCC treasurer had been lying vacant ever since V Prathapachandran died during December 2022. When the overhaul is being done by the Congress High Command, the treasurer post will also be filled up.