Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress’s performance in the five states which have gone polls will decide on the fate of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s promise to former chief minister Oommen Chandy to effect an organisartional revamp in Kerala. If the party wins at least two to three states, then Mr Gandhi will come up with his own team of Pradesh Congress Committee presidents across the country, party sources said. KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran has completed three years and with a cross section of Congress leaders baying for his blood, Mr Gandhi will be forced to change him.
Mr Chandy had called on Mr Gandhi in New Delhi early this year and apprised him of the developments and the growing dissent brewing in the party against the PCC president. Mr Chandy’s major grievance was that he was not taken into confidence when the 14 DCC presidents were appointed and that Mr Sudheeran and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala were hand in glove with the PCC president in the appointment of DCC presidents. Mr Gandhi had then promised that his request to have organisational elections would be taken up after the elections.
“It is very difficult to hold organisational elections in Kerala alone and it has already been challenged by senior Congress leader Mullapally Ramachandran who is also the chairman of the election authority for the organizational elections of the party countrywide. We know that it is just a ploy by Me Chandy to oust Mr Sudheeran from the PCC chief’s post under the guise of holding organisational elections,” a KPCC general secretary told DC. Mr Chandy held talks with senior Congress leader A. K. Antony at Indira Bhavan on Monday.
Though the two leaders remained tight lipped on what had transpired, sources close to them told DC that their discussion centred on Mr Gandhi’s gameplan of changing PCC presidents. “Mr Antony is aware of the growing dissent within the party against Mr Sudheeran. Mr Chandy is reminding the senior leadership of the AICC about the earlier promise Mr Gandhi had given him. A majority of the leaders who met Mr Antony have apprised him that it will be difficult to face the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 with Sudheeran at the helm,” said a leader close to Mr Chandy.
