THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior Congress leader A. K. Antony has taken the initiative to solve the disputes in the group-ridden state party to prepare it for the coming local body elections.
He has supported the reorganisation of the DCCs before the polls as per the plans of KPCC chief V. M. Sudheeran.
Mr Antony has asked the leaders, including Mr Sudheeran, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala to work unitedly.
Mr Sudheeran has been trying to assert his authority over the party with his own band of loyalists, it has been alleged.
Mr Sudheeran had brought in seven local leaders in the Wayanad DCC who had been rejected by Mr Chandy and Mr Chennithala.
Mr Sudheeran has only a handful of supporters within the party, it is said.
"Antony does not want any dispute between the three leaders to harm the party in the local bodies elections. But as the party revamping is taking place, Mr Sudheeran has brought in a set of new leaders,” an ‘I’ group leader said.
The AICC leadership had directed the state leadership not to revamp the block and DCCs as per group equations, but Mr Chandy and Mr Chennithala went ahead with it.
In the case of Kasargod DCC, Mr Sudheeran summoned the district leaders to the KPCC office and expressed his preferences which did not go down well with the other two. All 14 DCC leaders are keen on the revamp now.
Meanwhile, K. Muraleedharan of the ‘I’ group told reporters that the revamp should not be delayed as appointments to 12 DCCs had already taken place
