The Congress party in Kerala has been divided over the issue of giving the lone Rajya Sabha seat to Kerala Congress (A regional party in Kerala) leader K M Mani. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president M M Hassan, current opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala and former Chief Minister of the state Oommen Chandy had collectively decided to give the seat to Kerala Congress party which was a Congress ally in the previous United Democratic Front (UDF) government. The veteran Congress leader and former Rajya Sabha vice-chairman PJ Kurian are not happy with this move, having slammed Oommen Chandy of playing dirty politics. He said, “‘Initially, Mr. Chandy tried to block my return to the Rajya Sabha by instigating a few young party MLAs and leaders to revolt against me. Without knowing the facts, these young leaders close to Mr. Chandy and Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala rebuked me in public. Mr. Chennithala came to me and apologised, saying that he had already reprimanded the youth leaders. But, Mr. Chandy not even showed the courtesy to telephone me.”
The infighting has grown so much that some young leaders even demanded that Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala and MM Hassan should be thrown out of the party. The former KPCC president V M Sudheeran is also not happy with Chandy as he walked out of a party meeting on Friday when Kerala Congress was formally accepted in the meeting. He was expecting the Rajya Sabha seat for himself which has gone to Kerala Congress leader K M Mani. Senior Congress leader and MP from Ernakulum K V Thomas criticized the Ramesh-Chandy-M M Hassan trio, “This is not the way decisions have to be taken on such crucial issues. The party should be kept in the loop” he said.
One faction of the Congress party is not happy with the leadership of Oommen Chandy in the state. Under his leadership, the party lost the assembly elections in 2016 to the communist-led Left Democratic front. After that he was appointed as General Secretary of the party for the state of Andhra Pradesh but was not been able to show any results. Commenting on Ommen Chandy’s refusal to attend the PAC, senior Congress leader P C Chacko said “Oommen Chandy should have participated in the PAC as it was against him the major allegations were leveled. He could have gone by the morning flight to Bengaluru and from there to Vijayawada but party leaders felt he had skipped the PAC to avoid coming under attack from the participants.” PJ Kurien also attacked Chandy for not attending the party meeting he said “Why was Chandy present during the discussions held in New Delhi since he is neither the Congress Parliamentary Party leader nor the KPCC chief. If he took part in his capacity as the AICC general secretary, then KC Venugopal too should also have attended.”
The Congress party has already lost power in the state, and if the infighting goes on between its senior leaders then the chances of winning next elections will be even slimmer. The party is already reduced to three and a half states and performed its worst ever since Rahul Gandhi took over the party leadership. If the infighting goes on between its leaders in the states where it has a good support base, then soon they will be wiped out of the country and there will be a Congress-mukt Bharat. The fighting for a single Rajya Sabha seat also shows that the senior Congress leaders are extremely greedy for power and also indicates a situation that the party is reduced to such a poor condition that they are struggling to win a single Rajya Sabha seat.
