Kochi: The resignation of Ernakulam district panchayat president Asha Sanil has ignited the dormant factional feud in the Congress district unit. She stepped down as per the instruction of District Congress Committee which has her replacement with Dolly Kuriakose, standing committee chairperson in the district panchayat.
The KPCC leadership has till now stymied the demand for a change of guard in Kochi Corporation and district panchayat since October 2018, when the UDF-led councils completed two and half years at office. It was reluctant to bring in change as maintaining the group and caste equations will be a challenging task and it will not be easy for them to finalise names of successors. However, in Kalamassery municipality, where there was fierce factional feud, former chairperson Jessy Peter had been forcefully removed to accommodate Rukiya Jamal, wife of influential 'A' faction leader Jamal Manakkadan.
According to sources in the Congress, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennith-ala also played a major role in changing the leadership in the district panchayat.
Now, with the replacement of Asha Sanil, rumours are rife over the possible changes in Kochi corporation where town planning committee chairperson Shainy Mathew had openly revolted against the party leadership for not fulfilling the promise of replacing Soumini Jain with her.
Party district leadership admits that there was an agreement between 'A' and 'I' factions for sharing the chairperson/mayor post between the two groups, after two and half years. However, the leaders in local bodies failed to comply with it following which there was strong resentment from both factions.
Earlier, Ms Mathew threatened to resign from the post of town planning committee chairperson in protest against the delay in change of leadership.
But, KPCC president Mullappally Ramachan-dran gave strict warning against the intensifying internal feud and said a strict 'no' to the demand for reshuffling.
