Sudarshan Nachiappan eyes youth, women

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Sudarshan Nachiappan, AICC's returning officer, is in a "hideout" polishing KPCC revamp list he had received from Kerala leaders over the last three days.

He has asked the group leaders to come out with a final list before leaving for New Delhi on Thursday morning. He wants 30 percent representation for the youth and newcomers and 20 percent women and Dalits against the wishes of senior group leaders.

Though he was to leave on Wednesday with the final list of the-282 member KPCC along with the block and mandalam delegates, he postponed his departure for a day.  Leaders are tight-lipped on his whereabouts, but they revealed he had “enough” with the group politics compared to the other states. 

While the ‘I’ and ‘A’ group campaign managers led by Sooranad Rajasekharan and Thampanoor Ravi have given a seat-sharing list, K. V. Thomas MP has objected to this in his home district, Ernakulam. 

A prominent Congress leader from there told DC that he conveyed to Mr Nachiappan that he would not allow it in Ernakulam.

“So the current adjustment is that Mr Nachiappan will release only the KPCC list from Ernakulam in New Delhi. This means the block and mandalam committee leaders from Ernakulam can wait which has already been conveyed to Mr Nachiappan and Mullappally Ramachandran, the electoral commission chairman,” said a Congress MLA from Ernakulam.

Political Affairs Committee member P. C. Chacko is another leader who too has objected to the seat-sharing. 

If AICC considers the youth and newcomers in the age group between 35 – 45 years, the group managers have raised it to 45 – 55 years who were unlucky to get inducted into the previous list during 2010. 

This has triggered widespread opposition from within the party which is expected to create a backlash as they included "newcomers" aged above 55 years.