A Herculean task awaits U. Rajeevan, who was appointed Kozhikode district Congress committee (DCC) president by Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday.
Several names were considered for the post after the elevation of T. Siddique as one of the 12 State vice presidents of the party five months ago. The national leadership zeroed in on Mr. Rajeevan, who has a wealth of experience, both in the organisational set-up of the party and electoral politics.
One of the factors that helped Mr. Rajeevan was his organisational skills as general convener of the Vadakara parliamentary committee thrice in a row. Congress nominees have been winning the Lok Sabha seat since the surprising victory of Mullappally Ramachandran from the CPI(M) fortress in 2009.
At present, Mr. Rajeevan is the leader of the opposition in the Koyilandy municipality and general convener of UDF Koyilandy Assembly segment. He was earlier a member of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) executive committee and executive director of the State Cooperative Bank.
The State leadership believes that the new DCC chief should take more efforts to steer the Congress-led UDF in the upcoming local body polls and the Assembly polls next year. The Congress party has had no legislator from the district for the last three terms.
The three-year tenure of Mr. Siddique had helped quell factional wars in some ways. It has to be seen how Mr. Rajeevan will be able to handle disgruntled leaders from the A and I groups of the party who have been left out of the reconstituted KPCC.
