The appraisal of the State government’s performance by the Manifesto Implementation Monitoring Committee of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) has come as a shot in the arm for Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, beleaguered as he is by the agitation of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) against him, the factional tussles in his party and its shaky relations with some of the partners in the ruling alliance.
By one stroke, the party’s high command has virtually thrown its weight behind the Chief Minister, strengthening him ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due any time now. It comes as confirmation of the high command’s earlier decision to maintain status quo in factional equations.
However, it indicates that Mr. Chandy will have the sole responsibility of leading the electoral fight. Senior leaders here feel that Mr. Chandy, as the Congress Legislature Party leader, will have the responsibility of ensuring the victory of Congress candidates in the general elections to help the party win sufficient numbers to retain its power at the Centre.
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M. Veerappa Moily, chairman of the monitoring committee, and Mukul Wasnik, AICC general secretary in charge of Kerala, gave a “perfect 10” for party-government coordination. Though the two leaders glossed over the poor performance of the government in the past one year during which time the Chief Minister has been virtually leading a single-handed fight against the LDF and the growing factional fights, they maintained that that the achievements in implementing the promises in the manifesto would not have been possible without smooth coordination between government and party.
The Chief Minister continues to be the main target of the LDF, which has announced that it will harden its agitation demanding his resignation by laying siege to his official residence. The Congress leaders here are keenly watching the developments in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) as it moves to its plenum beginning Thursday. There is speculation in the Congress that the CPI(M) might launch attempts to destabilise the government after it decides on its future course action at the plenum.
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Mr. Chandy, on his part, has tried to douse factional differences in his party. He has made attempts to reach out to some of the junior coalition partners which do not have much stake in the Lok Sabha elections by showing an inclination to settle some of their issues related to the “sharing formula” of the UDF.
The Indian Union Muslim League has reiterated its decision to stick to the ruling coalition, but did not hide its dissatisfaction with the functioning of the Home Department through an editorial article in its organ, Chandrika .
The Kerala Congress(M) is a divided house over the stand taken by its vice-chairman and Government Chief Whip, P.C. George. One faction, led by Water Resources Minister P.J. Joseph, has been pressuring the party leader, K.M. Mani, to demand an additional seat for the Lok Sabha elections.
Mr. Chandy hopes that the party high command’s expression of solidarity with him will help him tackle the higher ambitions of his coalition partners, besides facing the LDF.