Cong. not to upset Chandy-Chennithala binary

Uneasy truce between warring factions after visit of Tariq Anwar

For a party whose leadership takes the credit for victories and the middle-rung leaders receive the brickbats in defeats, the Congress high command is now determined to focus on Kerala after facing a drubbing in the recently-concluded local body polls.

For the time being, the dust may have settled in the party, but leaders from north Kerala, especially K. Muraleedharan and K. Sudhakaran, would have to bide their time until the appointment of new president and the Assembly polls.

Even as results of the polls started ticking in, both MPs lost no time to put the blame on the State leadership without naming the troika — KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala and senior leader Oommen Chandy. On the face of it, it seemed like an unfruitful bargain though both were keen on KPCC president’s post.

Now an uneasy truce has been reached between warring factions after the visit of AICC general secretary in charge of Kerala Tariq Anwar who categorically stated that the Central leadership wanted the Chandy-Chennithala binary to stay and refused to buy the argument that their tussle led to the failure. Nevertheless, the KPCC wanted to take corrective action on the organisational structure before the Assembly polls.

A clear picture on the electoral strategy of the party will emerge only after the AICC convenes its session in January when the new president will be introduced. It has been over a year since Sonia Gandhi took over as interim Congress president, after Rahul Gandhi stepped down following the party’s humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha polls in May 2019.

Unlike the previous elections, both factions will be compelled under prevailing circumstances to get more and their own legislators in the Assembly as possible as their leaders know a defeat in the frequent see-saw electoral battle between the UDF and LDF would be disastrous for the Congress party in the State.

In 2011, when the Congress faced acrimonious struggle for power between the Chandy and Chennithala factions, the UDF scraped through with two more seats than the LDF. Now the situation is more precarious with the BJP making inroads in many regions and strong undercurrents of communal polarisation.

Also in the high-stake political combat, the Congress will have to fend for itself with the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), its main partner, stating that its leadership would not intervene in intra-party feuds of the Congress party.

Having lost in the semi-finals, the Opposition Congress-led coalition may still have an opportunity to fight the polls and that too in direct contest with the LDF in the State.

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