Ad hoc arrangement

The replacement of Vayalar Ravi as Kerala Pradesh Congress(I) Committee president indicates a climbdown by A.K. Antony.

R. KRISHNAKUMAR
in Thiruvananthapuram

A BITTER Vayalar Ravi left on June 5 the office of Kerala Pradesh Congress(I) Committee president, a post he held for over six years, to make way for a nominated ad hoc substitute, Thennala Balakrishna Pillai. The new president was appointed by the high command following a joint decision by the traditional rivals in the State Congress(I), former Chief Ministers K. Karunakaran and A.K. Antony. Balakrishna Pillai's brief is to form an ad hoc committee and hold elections in the faction-ridden State party unit within three months, an uphill task by any standard.

Vayalar Ravi's term ended in January 1997, but there was no new president to replace him. Organisational elections could not be held as the State party was going through one of the worst periods of group rivalry. In July 1997, the high command's returning officer, Kishore Chandra Deo, arrived in Thiruvananthapuram to hold discussions on the elections but beat a hasty retreat under threat of violence from Karunakaran loyalists, who would not recognise the existence of new "groups". The electoral process, which had reached the point of revising the membership list, came to a halt when the question of appointing returning officers on the basis of groups came up for discussion.

The events that led to Antony replacing Karunakaran as the legislature party leader (and also Chief Minister) in March 1995 had seen a severe erosion from the Karunakaran group because of Karunakaran's eagerness to promote the political ambitions of his son and former member of Parliament, K. Muraleedharan, often disregarding the legitimate aspirations of his long-time associates. Those who thus disengaged themselves from the "I" camp of Karunakaran included a group called "reformists". Former State Minister G. Karthikeyan and All India Congress(I) Committee secretary and former MP Ramesh Chennithala formed its core. Over a period of time, and despite Karunakaran's resentment, they, along with some others, had established themselves as a ginger group with the tacit support of the Antony camp.

C. RATHEESH KUMAR
K. Karunakaran and A.K. Antony. Following an agreement between the traditional rivals, Vayalar Ravi was replaced as president of the State unit of the Congress(I).

Vayalar Ravi was an Antony supporter until 1992 when he moved to the Karunakaran camp and contested and won the PCC(I) presidentship against the incumbent president, Antony. He remained with Karunakaran but quietly resented the role Muraleedharan was allowed to play in organisational matters as State general secretary. By Ravi's own admission, the KPCC(I) and its president were reduced to being rubber stamps. The District Congress(I) Committees were under the control of one group or the other, and the PCC(I)'s decisions were not carried out by the district committees if they went against the interests of the groups in control.

When Karunakaran was removed from the chief ministership and suffered setbacks repeatedly at the State and national levels, Ravi's loyalty became suspect in the eyes of Karunakaran supporters. Wary of the dangers involved in rejoining the Antony camp, Ravi tried to create a niche for himself by moving closer to the party's central leadership at that time under Sitaram Kesri.

The rift was complete after the Calcutta AICC(I) session, with Karunakaran (who did not see eye to eye with Kesri) accusing Ravi and Sharad Pawar-loyalist P.C. Chacko, MP, of preventing him from contesting the Congress Working Committee (CWC) election. He alleged that they had failed to file his nomination papers on time.

C. RATHEESH KUMAR
Vayalar Ravi.

Given the lacklusture image of Karunakaran at the national level at the time, he could well have been aware of the possibility of a defeat had he contested the CWC election. If Karunakaran succeeded in avoiding the embarrassment by blaming Ravi and Chacko, the latter two escaped being regarded as Karunakaran-loyalists in an AICC(I) headed by Kesri. Subsequent events confirmed that the PCC(I) president had indeed drifted away from Karunakaran.

Unfortunately for Ravi, the Lok Sabha elections came soon and Karunakaran and Antony patched up their election-eve differences. By the time Sonia Gandhi came to Kochi to campaign for the elections in February, the two leaders were calling upon all Congressmen to sink their differences to meet the Left Democratic Front's (LDF) challenge. The truce held even after the elections, although it failed to fetch the expected electoral dividend for the party. Ravi found himself without support from either camp. Antony had become the State party strongman; Karunakaran, whose ambition seemed focussed on ensuring a bright future for his son as the unchallenged leader of the "I" group, was next only to Antony.

However, given the "unite or perish" situation in the party after the February elections, and with some support from the Antony camp and the "reformist" group, Ravi continued as president, despite the Karunakaran camp's demand that he be removed and the party elections be held under the supervision of an ad hoc committee.

With the high command's decision to revamp State party units, the KPCC(I) was again witness to a drama in June. As immediate organisational elections were next to impossible, Sonia Gandhi sent Prabha Rao as AICC(I) observer to hear the views of a cross section of Congressmen in the State in order to evolve a "consensus" on a new PCC(I) president and the State committee. While Antony refused to name his preference, his supporters suggested eight names for the president's post. The "reformist" group suggested two names. The Karunakaran group had only one nominee: Muraleedharan.

There was overwhelming opposition to the party succumbing to Karunakaran's scheme, ignoring the claims of other leaders for the post. But Karunakaran would not agree to the suggestion that any of the 10 other names be considered. The "I" group had a "legitimate claim" to the post of president, and if it was not Muraleedharan then it was election - this was Karunakaran's stand before the high command.

By persisting with what he knew was an impossible demand, Karunakaran finally achieved what he had wanted for the past several months - the removal of Ravi from the party post.

C. RATHEESH KUMAR
Karunakaran's son K. Muraleedharan.

The appointment of Balakrishna Pillai, an always-there intermediary not attached to any group but amenable to pressure from the Karunakaran-Muraleedharan camp, has caused much heartburning among Antony supporters. Antony himself appears to have gained little but for the satisfaction of having got even with Ravi for having switched sides to defeat him in the 1992 presidential election. However, he managed to avoid the embarrassment of suggesting one of his supporters for the post and thereby causing disappointment in others in his group. The long and short of it is that Antony, despite his current position in the party, succumbed once again to Karunakaran's wishes rather than those of his own trusted supporters.

WILL Balakrishna Pillai be able to do the job for which he is appointed? No Congressman in Kerala sees even a remote possibility of party elections being held in three months. If the democratic approach of allowing elections even when one is sure of being defeated and permitting a fair and impartial revision of the voters' list and appointment of returning officers were acceptable, party elections could have taken place much earlier. But under the veneer of unity, group rivalries remain as strong as ever with no group ready to budge from stated positions - unless Antony, in his own inscrutable way, agrees to further concessions.

On the other hand, Balakrishna Pillai and the "ad hoc" committee that is to be nominated soon could very well become a permanent feature. Is it that Antony and Karunakaran, whose rivalry has dominated the course of Congress(I) politics in Kerala in the past three decades, have united to avoid party elections and instead rule by nomination?

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