With the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) leadership setting its agenda for reorienting the party, the central leadership appears to have refused to entertain the growing discontentment with the new dispensation in the State unit.
That former All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief Rahul Gandhi during his one-day visit to the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency on Wednesday declined to grant audience to disgruntled leaders to discuss the unprecedented changes showed that the central leadership is against disturbing the existing equilibrium in the party.
Beset by problems in Punjab, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh and challenges posed by the so-called G-23, the central leadership is of the view that the new KPCC leadership is marching determinedly to revamp the party apparatus.
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The resignation of senior leader V.M. Sudheeran from the political affairs committee and subsequently the AICC, the central leadership believes it will not have any major impact on the organisational structure. The sane voice of former KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran also failed to canvass opinion following the shift in the party’s internal dynamics, sources said.
They also felt that the troika of KPCC president K. Sudhakaran, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan, and AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal really meant business even if the old guard was left in the cold.
Now, with the blessings of Congress Working Committee (CWC) member A.K. Antony, sources said, Mr. Venugopal had become apparent as the new consiglieri in the offensive manoeuvring in Congress camp wars. He has been able to realign himself with Mr. Sudhakaran despite differences of opinion with him earlier.
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Many believe that Mr. Sudhakaran’s lateral thinking and non-conformist attitude will help the party in the long run. Dismayed by factionalism, the central leadership will certainly go for rapprochement in its own terms rather than get browbeaten to rock the KPCC, the sources said.
After being outplayed by the domineering Sudhakaran, the ‘A’ faction led by former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and the ‘I’ faction led by Ramesh Chennithala have lost traction with the central leaders. Even then their proteges have got a pie in the appointment of DCC presidents, a senior party functionary said.
The central leadership has already sent a message that coaxing strategies employed by the A and I factions will not work anymore. However, it has tactfully flown down AICC general secretary Tariq Anwar as an emissary to generate a feeling that he was a diplomatic representative to sort out the resentment.
Having retested and lost the Chandy-Chennithala binary in the Assembly polls, the party high command is geared up to meet any eventuality that may arise out of desertion, resignation, or open rebellion.
The failed experiment has shown that none of the Congress leaders have a large-scale fervent following in the State. Mr. Chennithala, the central leadership observes, has only pockets of influence, while the popularity image of Mr. Chandy is beginning to fade, the sources said.