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Thiruvananthapuram: The
Congress is at war with itself in Kerala and at least one leader
says this is affecting governance while another says he will
continue to air their grievances against the party. There is even
a suggestion that the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) could
come apart if the infighting and faction-feuding continues.
Not long ago, the tussle was between the factions led by the late
K. Karunakaran and (now Defence Minister) A.K. Antony. Today the
factionalism continues with different actors.
The feud today is led on one side by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy
and on the other by state Congress president Ramesh Chennithala,
who has with him a majority of the erstwhile Karunakaran group and
some leaders of the (Overseas Indian Affairs Minister) Vayalar
Ravi group.
This doesn't bode well for the party, says Karunakaran's son, K.
Muraleedharan.
"There are issues that have strained the smooth functioning and
the best thing would be a meeting to be called which could well
sort out all unpleasant issues that are now boiling,"
Muraleedharan said.
Till the 2011 assembly polls, the Chandy-Chennithala duo had
combined well for around six years, but things went for a toss the
moment the latter threw in his cap for the chief minister's post.
This was seen as a challenge by the Chandy camp, as there was an
unwritten understanding that if the Congress won the polls, Chandy
would become the chief minister.
From then on, things went haywire as both of them wanted the
maximum seats for their respective camp followers. As a result,
selection of candidates became tough and not the best got selected
after seats were allocated on the basis of caste and creed.
When the results came in, the Congress-led United Democratic Front
(UDF) had a minuscule majority of just four seats in the
140-member Kerala assembly.
And when Chennithala sought to be the parliamentary party leader,
a call came from Delhi hours before the meeting asking him to make
a public statement that he was not in the running for the plum
post.
Since then, for all practical purposes, the once smoothly
functioning Chandy-Chennithala duo got strained and this continues
even now.
Things have now reached a crescendo as the warring factions, even
more than a year after starting talks to revamp the organisation
at all levels, are yet to come to an understanding. The duo often
states that the revamp will happen after they return from meeting
the national leadership, but all such trips have turned out to be
a damp squib.
Another pointer that all is not well within the Congress here is
the emergence of a new group of Congress legislators that calls
itself the Green Brigade and has the secret blessings of
Chennithala. For some time now, they have been giving sleepless
nights to Chandy and his camp.
The Green Brigade is led by V.D. Satheesan, who has with him T.N.
Pratapan and V.T. Balaram. They lose no opportunity to come out in
the open against the policies of the Chandy government.
With close to a dozen TV channels operating in the state, the
three are the most sought after guests on news programmes and
debates, where they frequently take on the Chandy government.
When things went a bit too far, Satheesan and Pratapan were
summoned to Delhi by Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi,
after which they appeared to take a break. In the past week, they
have, however, resumed their Chandy bashing.
On Monday UDF convenor P.P.Thankachan, a former state Congress
chief, suggested that Pratapan pipe down, but he refused to do so.
"I don't care and I will raise these issues at party forums and
even in public and I am not worried about the outcome," Pratapan
said at a public meeting Monday evening.
Chief whip in Kerala Assembly P.C.George added a new twist when he
said that in the best interests of all concerned, those who speak
out should not forget that Chandy's was a coalition government.
"If a few Congress legislators do not want this Congress
government in office, then we are not bound to prop up such a
government. The Congress party has to settle their issues because
all accepted levels of patience are over," said George, the vice
chairman of the Kerala Congress (Mani), the third biggest ally of
the UDF.
Chandy and Chennithala were to have travelled to New Delhi
Wednesday for talks on the revamp issue. This has now been delayed
indefinitely, meaning it will take a while before the Congress can
get its house in order.
(Sanu George
can be contacted at sanu.g@ians.in)
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