THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Young Congress MLAs are peeved with the way in which the three senior leaders reached a consensus on home minister Ramesh Chennithala as the next Opposition Leader. On Friday, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran and Mr Chennithala had huddled together at KPCC office and took the decision ahead of Sunday's Congress Legislative Party meeting.
KPCC functionaries and majority of the 22 legislators believe these three leaders are trying to protect their posts and resorting to sharing key posts among their respective groups. “We are not at all against Mr Chennithala. Our grievance is that we have got a definite stand on who should be the next Opposition Leader as well as the deputy leader and UDF chair posts,” said a youth MLA.
“If the three seniors could come to a consensus, then what is the point of AICC sending a team of observers to gauge the mood? Most probably the name of Mr Chennithala might again crop up at Sunday’s CLP meet,” said another youth leader.
AICC has sent a delegation to Thiruvanantha-puram comprising former Kerala Governor Sheila Dixit, AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik and Dipak Babaria, secretary in charge of the state. Mr Babaria reached the state capital a day in advance and spoke to a plethora of leaders.
A senior AICC leader told DC that it was ‘gross impropriety’ on the part of the three top leaders in zeroing in on the Opposition Leader without discussing it before the CLP meeting. Apart from Mr Chennithala, the other leaders who are in the race include KPCC vice-president V. D. Satheeshan, former president K. Muraleedharan, former forest minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and Thrikkakara MLA P. T. Thomas.
