V M Sudheeran to stay on till polls

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress high command on Thursday decided to hold organisational elections in the state after completing a three-month long exercise of reorganising the party at various levels. Till that time KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran will continue in office. The high command decision has paved the way for organisational elections in Congress state unit after 1991. While the “A” and “I” groups had demanded Mr Sudheeran's removal, the central leadership decided to retain him at least till the entire reorganisation exercise got over.

The decision was taken after top three leaders of Congress from the state; former chief minister Oommen Chandy, Sudheeran and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala held a series of discussions with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in the presence of Congress Working Committee members A.K. Antony and other central leaders in Delhi on Thursday. At the end of the day long deliberations, AICC in charge of Kerala Mukul Wasnik told mediapersons that the Congress vice-president held had consultations and interactions with a large number of leaders from Kerala on July 7 and 8 and the discussions on Thursday were the culmination of the exercise held earlier.

“It has been decided to hold organisational elections. But for preparing the party for these organisational elections, we will be undertaking a massive reorganisation of party units at various levels in the state. In our meeting today, we discussed the mechanism for undertaking such a big exercise of reorganisation. Rahul Gandhi will be taking a final decision on the mechanism to be adopted for reorganisation and he would also finalise the schedule shortly,” AICC in charge of Kerala Mukul Wasnik said.

Mr Wasnik said the elections within the party would begin with the primary units which are booth committees. “We had Assembly elections in Kerala recently after which a large number of our colleagues felt that there was a need for reorganisation of the party at various level. Therefore the reorganisation exercise will be undertaken without waiting for the organisational elections,” he added.

The central leadership has made it clear that the reorganisation was only aimed at organisational elections which would be held later. “I have mentioned that we have discussed the mechanism for undertaking this exercise of reorganisation and the matter was discussed in detail today. Rahul Gandhi will decide on the matter and we will announce the dates very soon,” added Wasnik.

The central leadership is keen to have reorganisation at all levels in the state and wants to complete the entire process within 60 to 70 days. The final schedule will be announced soon. “We want the party to be vibrant at every level as soon as possible. A large number of people have favoured organisational elections to strengthen the party. But we have to continue with the activities of reorganisation as we cannot stop the exercise till elections,” the AICC leader said.