congress: Halt nominations, hold polls: Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala to Sonia Gandhi

The tug of battle inside Congress in Kerala intensified as senior chief Oommen Chandy demanded an finish to the method of constituting the state Congress by nominations and finishing it by organisational elections throughout his assembly with interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Wednesday.

As Ramesh Chennithala, one other senior chief, has already made comparable calls for by his letters to Gandhi and state in-charge Tariq Anwar, Congress circles really feel teams led by Chandy and Chennithala have closed ranks to tackle the brand new management workforce nominated with the blessings of Rahul Gandhi and AICC organisation normal secretary KC Venugopal.

After Chandy took up the problems with Gandhi and Tariq Anwar individually, Anwar left for Kerala by Wednesday night to carry peace talks with senior state Congress leaders to defuse the scenario. Earlier than leaving for Thiruvanathpauram, Anwar mentioned he would maintain discussions with senior Congress leaders of Kerala and attempt to discover an amicable resolution.

Throughout his assembly with Gandhi, Chandy can also be learnt to have sought common conferences of the political affairs committee of the state Congress. He complained that the brand new state management workforce, comprising PCC chief Okay Sudhakaran and CLP chief VD Satheesan, didn’t maintain common PAC conferences. Chandy reminded the central management that AICC had created the PAC with the intention of creating broad-basing coverage choices. Not too long ago, former PCC chief VM Sudheeran resigned from PAC and his AICC membership, alleging the brand new management was functioning as a brand new group by limiting decision-making to a handful of leaders and excluding seniors. Chandy and Chennitala too have comparable complaints.

Chandy’s and Chennithala’s suggestion that the AICC needn’t nominate members and that members to the District Congress Committees and Block Congress Committees in Kerala might be elected is seen as their teams’ transfer to show the organisational polls right into a present of energy towards the brand new PCC workforce.

For Workforce Sudhakaran, AICC nominating DCCs and BCCs with its nominees is essential to determine a maintain on the state Congress equipment, hitherto dominated by Chandy-Ramesh teams. Nevertheless, the Chandy-Ramesh teams have cited PCC chief Okay Sudhakaran’s remark that he’ll search to retain his put up within the scheduled organisational elections to argue {that a} PCC chief who can be a candidate can’t be allowed to appoint committee members as it could quantity to battle of pursuits. The Congress in Kerala has a historical past of highly effective teams forcing elections to celebration posts, which as soon as noticed Karunakaran-backed Vayalar Ravi defeating AK Antony within the election for KPCC president. Chandy and Chennithala could also be working to drive one more such contest if AICC lets the present management workforce in Kerala to have its means.