Gloom grips Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee office

Thiruvananthapuram: The mood of the leaders present in the KPCC office ranged from disbelief to disappointment  as the poll results came pouring in on Thursday. KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran told the press at 1 p.m. that the 105-member KPCC executive committee would meet on May 23 to discuss their defeat.

But at 10 a.m., he was wielding the TV remote in his office room in Indira Bhavan, betraying little emotion. All channels were shouting that the LDF was leading in 88 constituencies and the UDF in 50 seats. Some of the UDF bigwigs were heading to an embarrassing defeat, but Congress leaders, under the surveillance of channel cameras, were careful not to move a muscle.

Mahila Congress president Bindu Krishna, the only woman  party representative in the room, was more expressive than her peers. She seemed  deeply affected by the defeat of KPCC general secretary Sooranad Rajasekharan, who was pushed to the third place in Chathannoor. She would turn to look at other leaders with disbelief, mouthing “35,000!” – the number of votes he trailed by. Sudheeran, however, was poker-faced till the end.