Sudheeran on mat at PCC meet

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as the clamour for a change of guard at the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) is becoming shriller, sources in the AICC maintain that a decision on this contentious issue will be taken by AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi only after he takes over as AICC president.

The KPCC, meanwhile, on Sunday named a panel headed by its vice-president V.D. Satheesan to prepare a policy statement “to strengthen the party”.

“It is too early to comment on whether the KPCC will have a new man at the helm,” said AICC sources. “Mr. Gandhi will review the performance of the PCCs once he took over as AICC president. It is likely that a decision on Kerala would come soon as a large section in the party is baying for KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran’s blood.”

Mr Sudheeran, who addressed the media after a two-day retrospection session at Neyyar near Thiruvananthapuram said the KPCC has named four panels to study the reasons for the poll debacle in various districts. The panels, to be headed by KPCC general secretaries V.A. Narayanan (Kannur, Kasaragod and Wayanad), Sajeev Joseph (Palakkad, Kozhikode and Malappuram), KPCC vice-president Bharatipuram Sasi (Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur) and KPCC treasurer Johnson Abraham (Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Pathanamthitta) would file their report within three weeks.

Mr Sudheeran said former deputy speaker Palode Ravi, KPCC treasurer Johnson Abraham, KPCC general secretary P.M. Suresh Babu, KPCC secretary Mannar Abdul Latheef and Mahila Congress president Bindu Krishna will assist Mr Satheeshan to prepare his report.

Mr Sudheeran who maintained that the party will work unitedly was not keen to own up the responsibility for the poll debacle all by himself. “All the three senior leaders have got the collective responsibility in the poll defeat,” he said, adding that the party would not make a change in its liquor policy.

Then KPCC leaderships had appointed fact-finding committees headed by veteran leaders Thennala Balakrishna Pillai and Vakkom Purushothaman after the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and Assembly elections in 2011, respectively. The reports of these committees are, however, yet to see the light of the day.