Congress factions differ on party elections
The Congress ‘I’ camp feels recent elections were held on a group sharing mechanism
By : cynthia chandran
Update: 2014-11-13 06:01 GMT
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Differences of opinion have cropped up among the Congress factions over the organisational elections. The Congress ‘I’ camp feels that the recent elections to 21, 458 booth committees were held on a group sharing mechanism.
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, who was called to New Delhi by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for seeking steps to strengthen the party at the national level, was keen to see that organisational elections be held from the top to the bottom level of the party.
Recently, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and MPs Shashi Tharoor and K.V. Thomas too were called to New Delhi by Mr Rahul Gandhi for consultations. The Chennithala camp was peeved that the booth committee elections were held on a single day which was as per group consensus. But later when KPCC chief V.M. Sudheeran spoke about the PCC’s mega initiative on holding the elections as a trend setter, there was a change of mind in the ‘I’ camp. Its leaders alleged that booth presidents who were clinging on to their posts for more than a decade were not removed. Only 36 such leaders from Thiruvananthapuram district were asked to relinquish their posts for personal inconvenience in continuing.
“Sudheeran is interested in continuing as PCC chief by having a consensus among the group affiliations. But will the AICC leadership agree to that is still unclear. It is known that the chairman of the authority for organisational elections and Vadakara MP Mullapally Ramachandran does not have a soft corner for Sudheeran,” a top Congress leader told DC.
Some Congress leaders feel that senior leader A. K. Antony would be the deciding factor about elections to choose the PCC chief.
Meanwhile, some leaders belonging to both the factions in the Congress feel that Mr Sudheeran’s ‘Janapaksha Yatra’ sidesteps politics and concentrates on organic farming and flex boards when he should be preparing the party for the local body elections.