The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) seemed burdened with countermanding negative perceptions of the Nehru-Gandhi family leadership in the wake of the Congress's poor show in the Assembly polls in five States, including the populous Uttar Pradesh.
Illustratively, Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan somewhat quickly denied the existence of the high-profile G-23 group of reformists within the party’s national leadership. In a statement issued in the wake of the poll results, Mr. Satheesan said: “The G-23 set up has ceased to exist. The group had demanded another president for the party in the event Rahul Gandhi stayed away from the post. The party agreed to their demand and initiated organisational elections. Hence, there is no dispute at the national level in the party.”
Mr. Satheesan seemed to strive to distance the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) from the reformists, who had "meekly" questioned the "dynastic rule" in the Congress and argued for organisational elections.
His statement assumed some political import against the backdrop of reports that the "crushing defeat" could cause rumblings of dissent in the Congress to get louder in the coming days. At a stroke, Mr. Satheesan also appeared to reaffirm the narrative that the Nehru-Gandhi family was perhaps the only cohesive force in the arguably factionalism-ridden party.
Nevertheless, Mr. Satheesan "damningly" attributed the election debacle to organisational laxity in readying for the elections.
KPCC president K. Sudhakaran, MP, took a different tack. He said the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) win was primarily a product of intensively divisive and socially polarising communal politics. Provincial issues and sectarianism appeared to have had a weightier bearing on the voting pattern than national issues.
Mr. Sudhakaran said Congress's loss had buoyed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The agenda to rid the country of the Congress had rendered the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the BJP inseparable bedfellows.
Meanwhile, speculation was rife that the ‘A’ and ‘I’ factions, which “felt” sidelined by the national leadership, could exploit the situation to shore up their influence in the KPCC. The poll defeat has also raised the spectre of more defections from the Congress to a “welcoming” CPI(M).
