On Thursday afternoon, when the Kozhikode city Corporation council was in session, three unexpected guests were seen in the visitor’s gallery.
Surprise visit
The surprise visit of District Congress Committee (DCC) president T. Siddique and his colleagues Palakandi Moideen Ahamed and Kalariyil Radhakrishnan was to evaluate the performance of the Congress councillors in the meeting. After an hour, apparently satisfied with the councillors’ performance, they left the council hall.
Congress functionaries say the visit was part of the organisational auditing of elected representatives of the party in three-tier local bodies, municipalities, and Corporations in the State.
The new exercise, they point out, is to monitor the performance of the party councillors and guide them to take on the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front in Kozhikode Corporation, which has been in power for more than three decades. Quite interestingly, in the 75-member council, the Congress-led UDF has just 20 members. Senior Congress leaders such as P.M. Suresh Babu and P.M. Niyas have been entrusted to play a key role.
Launched with the blessings of the Congress high command, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has directed the DCC presidents to rejuvenate the party at the grassroots-level. Mr. Siddique and the former legislator, T.N. Prathapan, who is Thrissur DCC president, have already received praise from the party leadership for taking up various issues, including corruption charges against the government. The organisational auditing would be emulated across the State to appraise the performance of the elected members and improve their public interface, they said.
Though the Central leadership had anointed Mr. Siddique, who has been identified with the camp of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, as DCC president in December, he has been able to bring some dynamism to the beleaguered party in the district. The Congress has no representation from Kozhikode district in the State Assembly since 2005.
