Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Congress stocktaking prior to polls News Analysis

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress State conference slated to be held in Kochi from December 14 to December 16 will be a stocktaking exercise for the party. The performance of Congress Legislature Party leader Oommen Chandy and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Ramesh Chennithala since assuming the mantle of leadership in 2005 will also come up for review during the conference.

The party was a shambles after the drubbing it received in the Lok Sabha elections in 2004. This was followed by electoral defeats in the panchayat and Assembly elections in 2005 and 2006. In between, was the vertical split engineered by veteran Congress leader K. Karunakaran who formed the Democratic Indira Congress (K) and went on to merge the nascent party with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

The lower-level party apparatus was virtually defunct because of the decades-old factional feuds. Feeder organisations such as the Youth Congress and the Kerala Students Union (KSU) which provided sustenance to the Congress were non-existent for all practical purposes.

The Congress has come a long way since its plenary session in Kochi in 2005. The party appears to have by and large left behind the bleak days it had to face after 2006. The KPCC adopted a multi-pronged strategy to rebuild the party from the grassroots. Starting with the establishment of ward committees, the party leadership went about the process of revamping every level in its hierarchy.

It also established frontal organisations, support associations, and party cells in several sectors hitherto unattended to, in an attempt to shore up its support base. Today, the party owns a television channel, a revived party mouthpiece, a publication division and a media department that claims to be technology-savvy, not to mention its interest in disparate sectors such as science and technology and micro-finance.

The revamp process is almost over and the party leadership feels that there could not be an opportune movement to conduct the State conference, that too when the country is moving towards general election. The incumbent leadership has every reason to feel comfortable to face its rank and file. Factionalism is dormant, but has almost been wiped off. Mr. Karunakaran’s return to the Congress came as an additional bonus, at least symbolically, though it has been disrupting in terms of accommodating the new entrants.

The coming general elections will be the prime moving factor in the discussions being held prior to the State conference and during the conference. There will be a few recurring themes such as the alliance with the NCP that will provide hiccups for the incumbent leadership.

Despite the comfort levels the party leadership has in terms of the revamp process, there are several issues that will be worrisome for the party. It has not succeeded in putting the Youth Congress and KSU houses in order. At present, it is banking on the unpopularity of the Left Democratic Front government among several sections to fetch it a big victory in the general elections.

In 2004 and 2006, the Congress lost because it failed to keep its base among the minority communities. The party has been able to recover some ground, thanks to some of the policies of the State government. But minority politics in Kerala is also connected to Backward Class politics and the KPCC will have to do some tight rope walking on the issue of reservation that has once again cropped up with the High Court decision on public service appointments.

The current trends in Muslim politics also do not augur well for the Congress because it does not have a formula to address the issues related to the community, especially in constituencies outside the penumbra of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

The resolutions that will be discussed and adopted at the State conference might give a hint of how it proposes to do the balancing act. Mr. Chennithala and Mr. Chandy will go all out to consolidate their respective positions, but will have to work in tandem with other leaders to arrive at a winning formula for the general elections.

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