The All-India Congress Committee is gearing up for an overall reconstitution of the State party machinery through organisational elections to be held in three months, with Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president V.M. Sudheeran firmly in the saddle.
The organisational elections will be the first to be held since 1991. A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting convened by AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi and attended by former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala, Mr. Sudheeran, CWC member A.K. Antony, AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik and secretary Deepka Babria. The message that emerged from the meeting was that Mr. Sudheeran would not be disturbed and the two major factions led by Mr. Chandy and Mr. Chennithala would not have their way despite the pressure mounted for his removal.
The decision to conduct organisational elections has been taken with a view to debug factionalism in the party. This would be achieved by entrusting the conduct the elections to a committee, which is an entirely new move to be experimented, according to party insiders.
Mr. Wasnik, while briefing media persons in Delhi after the three-hour discussion, said that the entire party apparatus would be reconstituted right from the grass roots level upwards. The KPCC will be reorganised, but Mr Sudheeran would continue in office. The manner in which this should be done will be decided by Mr. Gandhi.
The two factions apparently could not push their agenda in ousting Mr. Sudheeran. It is not yet clear what would be the nature of party reorganisation and the manner in which it would be carried out. The Congress affairs had gone into a limbo soon after the miserable defeat in the assembly elections in view of the three way difference over the cause for the defeat. The two factions put the blame on Mr Sudheeran for his election eve positions, with Mr. Chandy trying to assert his position by seeking the KPCC president’s removal. Mr. Sudheeran stood his ground by stating that some of the controversial decisions taken by the Chandy cabinet and the candidate selection were responsible for turning the voters against the Congress. With Mr. Gandhi backing Mr. Sudheeran, the two factions are sure to recast their strategies in order to keep their hold on the party affairs.
