After months of intra-party wrangling in the State unit, the Congress high command on Friday nominated a 47-member panel of office-bearers to lead the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).
In a communique, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary K.C. Venugopal said party president Sonia Gandhi “has approved the proposal of the appointment of PCC office-bearers of Kerala with immediate effect. The remaining posts of PCC secretaries and the executive committee will be announced before February 10,” he said.
The release makes no mention of the current status of three working presidents, namely V.D. Satheeshan, MLA, K. Sudhakaran and Kodikunnil Suresh, both MPs.
Being AICC nominees, the three are likely to hold the office until the party high command decides the posts are redundant or appoints others in their stead.
Mr. Satheeshan had earlier requested the party high command not to consider him for the post. The AICC had earlier signalled that it preferred its MLAs and MPs to voluntarily stay away from crucial party positions to focus more on their constituencies.
The high command had reconstituted the KPCC after much parleys with top State leaders. It had strived to accommodate various factional, communal and regional interest in the selection of the panel.
The party appeared to be acutely aware that the reconstituted KPCC required to be broad-based to sail through a tumultuous period fraught with electoral challenges, tempestuous agitations centred around the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and increased social polarisation.
P.C. Vishnunath, a confidante of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, topped the list of 12 vice presidents. The other notables in the list are Padmaja Venugopal, Joseph Vazhackan, T. Siddique, Sarathchandra Prasad, K.C. Rosakutty and Mohan Sankar, son of former Chief Minister R. Sankar, Sooranad Rajasekharan, K.P. Dhanapalan, C.P. Muhammad, Manvila Radhakrishnan and Ezhukone Narayanan. The AICC has appointed K.K. Kochumuhammad as treasurer.
The reconstituted KPCC has 34 general secretaries. A. Palode Ravi, A.A. Shukkoor, Thampanoor Ravi, K.P. Anil Kumar, Manacaud Suresh, Jyothi Kumar Chamakala, and Mathew Kuzhalnadan are the prominent names on the list.
