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Congress appears to revert to infighting ahead of local body byelections in 49 wards
V.D. Satheesan skips Thiruvananthapuram District Congress Committee’s camp executive, summoned to put the party on the path to victory in the crucial local body byelections, which is deemed to be a bellwether of the State’s voting behaviour ahead of 2025
The Congress in Kerala appeared to show signs of reverting to self-defeatist infighting, which dashed its chances in the local body and Assembly elections in 2020 and 2021, respectively, despite a strong showing in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The ominous symptoms seemed to manifest in the Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan’s decision to skip the Thiruvananthapuram District Congress Committee’s camp executive, summoned to put the party on the path to victory in the crucial local body byelections in 49 wards.
The opposing fronts, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), see the outcome of the crucial bypolls as a bellwether of Kerala’s voting behaviour ahead of the local body polls in 2025 and beyond.
In early July, the Congress leadership camp in Wayanad found the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s (KPCC) organisational set-up torpid and inert in several Assembly constituencies.
To prevent defeat
Hence, it roped in top leaders, including “estranged” K. Muraleedharan, MP, to supercharge Congress’s local body campaign in 2025 to pre-empt a repeat of the party’s ignominious defeat in 2020 and 2021.
The decision bore the imprimatur of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) organising secretary K.C. Venugopal, and the AICC general secretary in charge of Kerala Deepa Dasmunshi.
The conclave accorded a coordinating role to Mr. Satheesan, who created WhatsApp groups to communicate in real-time with election managers across the State.
A party insider said some KPCC general secretaries and district party chiefs seemed loath to warm up to the AICC’s new scheme of things and viewed it as a trespass on their fiefdom and jurisdiction. Some also raised red flags, alerting their loyalists to an adversarial group in the KPCC.
Online meeting
The brewing resentment in the ranks reportedly prompted the KPCC leadership to summon an online meeting. Mr. Satheesan reportedly took umbrage at being kept out of the loop and not allowed to explain himself at the allegedly inquisitorial meeting.
Mr. Satheesan said he had no complaints about the KPCC excluding him from the meeting. “But I am sceptical about the loyalty of the persons who leaked information about the meeting, irrespective of whether it was true or false. The Leader of the Opposition is not above criticism. I have not issued any independent circulars to party workers,” he said.
KPCC president K. Sudhakaran dismissed the import of the development. He said criticisms were not unusual in Congress and their backwash was transient. “I would invite Mr. Satheesan for tea any day,” he added.
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