The resignation of V.M. Sudheeran as Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president is as surprising and dramatic as his appointment was.
The All-India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi inducted Mr. Sudheeran to the key post on February 11, 2014, stunning former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, both of whom had suggested G Karthikeyan as their preferred nominee. The three years in office has been quite stormy. The party High Command had inducted him with the specific mission to cleanse the stables of factionalism. Mr. Sudheeran went about his task quite seriously, but soon found out that factional politics was murkier that he thought. With a negative Assembly election result, the two factions led by Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala went after him holding him solely responsible for the drubbing the Congress and the UDF received. But Mr. Sudheeran held out, of course, with a strong backing from none other than AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Mr. Sudheeran has made a graceful exit, retaining the initiative of choosing the time to put in his papers. The injury he suffered from the fall at Kozhikode made it easy for him to take the hard decision. The timing of the resignation is significant as it has come on the eve of the counting of votes in the assembly elections to five states. The AICC is expected to turn its attention to reorganising the party in Kerala, with its attendant twists to factional politics. There could be no better time to make an honourable exit than this.
He could have taken leave to undergo treatment. But that would have opened him to the charge of clinging on to office, something which Mr. Sudheeran has never done in his long career as Speaker, MLA, MP and Minister spread over the decades. He would have had to let go if the party were to decide on going for a full-fledged organisational elections to elect a new crop of leaders to head the party in future. Mr. Sudheeran has therefore made his exit gracefully, without giving away an inch of the sturdy positions he took before he became KPCC president and after.
EoM
