THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the credit for the Nilambur by-election victory continues to be a point of contention within the state Congress, a confident Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan said on Friday that he was aware of the pitfalls in the event of a loss.
“The victory is good and is an achievement. However, if something had gone terribly wrong, I know what would have happened (to me) ...,” Satheesan trailed off, amid the laughter of leaders, at the three-hour Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting at Indira Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram that had national leaders K C Venugopal and Deepa Dasmunshi too in attendance.
The Leader of Opposition was referring to his statement during the campaign that the credit for a UDF win goes to all while the responsibility in the case of a defeat will lie solely with him.
Meanwhile, the PAC meeting witnessed ripples of the ‘Captain-Major’ debate over the credit for the UDF victory in Nilambur, linked to Satheesan and former Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala. Several members criticised the new trend of giving sobriquets to leaders.
T N Prathapan and Shanimol Usman came down heavily on the new culture and said describing leaders as ‘Captain’ and ‘Major’ is not good for the party in the current circumstances. “This is the time we should all be moving forward unitedly. Such description will invite the wrath of the public,” the leaders reportedly said, finding support from others. Though Satheesan has downplayed Chennithala’s statement that no one credited him for UDF victories during his time as the Leader of Opposition, the latter brought the issue up at the meeting.
Without naming anyone, Chennithala said, “During my tenure as KPCC president, I had taken all leaders together. The UDF also won all the by-elections at the time. The new leadership too must take all leaders together.”
However, there were no takers for his comments. Chennithala also demanded that the party sort out the issues with Shashi Tharoor.
“I have the opinion that the party should take Tharoor along. But it is up to the Congress leadership to decide. There is confusion among ordinary workers about the controversies relating to Tharoor. His action of supporting the BJP cannot be approved,” Chennithala is learnt to have said.
Though the Congress leadership has shut the door on former Nilambur MLA P V Anvar for the time being, he found a supporter in former Congress state president K Sudhakaran.
Participating virtually, Sudhakaran demanded that Anvar be inducted in the UDF. However, KPCC working president A P Anilkumar declined the demand and categorically told the meeting that the decision to keep Anvar out was taken unitedly.
“Hence, the door will be closed for Anvar until the issue is taken up again,” Anilkumar said.
Joseph Vazhakkan and Shanimol Usman criticized the new KPCC reorganization in which MLAs and MPs were given the organizational charges and posts. They alleged that the incumbent MLAs and MPs who are currently holding power positions are again nominated to party posts. "They have to look after their concerned constituencies. However, they were posted in organisational posts also. This happens when a majority of leaders are working for the party without any posts. As the assembly election is months away, this dual charge will harm the Congress ultimately as the leaders cannot concentrate their works in the constituencies. The organizational posts are also given to a certain section of leaders," they alleged.
A section of leaders including former KPCC president K Muralidharan, has told the leadership that if the latter is going for reorganisation at DCC president level all the presidents must be removed and new presidents have to be appointed. "If some presidents are removed and some others are retained it will give the wrong message," he said. He also demanded that the organisational works in the Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur districts must be strengthened," he added. Majority of the leaders also demanded that if it intended to do the KPCC reorganization, it must be carried out immediately. Bindu Krishan criticized the lack of representation of women in the reorganization.
KC Venugopal cautioned the leaders that this victory was materialized because all the party and UDF machinery could concentrate in one constituency. "However, during the assembly election we won't get this. Hence, we should not think that by this victory we had won the assembly election. We have to work more," he said. Deeap Dasmunshi asked the state leadership to concentrate on the local body election and concentrate in Thiruvananthapuram corporation and Thrissur.