THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress on Thursday revamped its Political Affairs Committee (PAC) by inducting six new faces, three each from ‘A’ and ‘I’ groups, and also made the KPCC bigger with 13 vice-presidents and 58 general secretaries as it looked to strengthen the party ahead of the local body elections. Nine of the general secretaries are women leaders.
MPs Rajmohan Unnithan, V K Sreekandan and Dean Kuriakose, and seniors Pandalam Sudhakaran, C P Mohammed and A K Mani have been inducted into the PAC.
In the KPCC rejig, the new group led by AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal has emerged strong with significant presence in the VP and general secretaries’ lists. Of the 13 VPs and 58 general secretaries, three and 16, respectively, are from this group.
The ‘A’ group got four VP posts. The Ramesh Chennithala and K Sudhakaran camps got three and two, respectively. MP Hibi Eden is said to be close to both Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan and Chennithala.
The VP list has former general secretary M Liju, Hibi, MLAs Mathew Kuzhalnadan and M Vincent, Ramya Haridas, T Sarathchandra Prasad, A A Shukoor, Roy K Paulose and Jaison Joseph. V T Balaram and V P Sajeendran have been retained. Senior leader Palode Ravi, who had an unceremonious exit as Thiruvananthapuram DCC president recently, is in the VP list, too.
Among general secretaries, ‘A’ group has 12 while Chennithala has six and Sudhakaran eight. Two general secretaries are close to Satheesan while KPCC chief Sunny Joseph, Kodikkunnil Suresh and Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan have got one each. The rest are favourites of more than one camp.
The list includes MLA Aryadan Shoukath, ex-MLAs Anil Akkara and K S Sabarinathan, as well as Sandeep Warrier, who recently switched to Congress from the BJP.
Tomy Kallani, Deepthi Mary Varghese, Neyyattinkara Sanal, Manacaud Suresh and M P Vincent are some of the other notable faces.
While there were reports that Jyothikumar Chamakkala, known to be close to Satheesan, would be made KPCC treasurer, he has been named general secretary. V A Narayanan, who is close to both Chennithala and KC, is the new treasurer.
