KOCHI: With the Congress leadership is all set to announce the new president of the District Congress Committee, there is speculation of the possible changes in the party’s top posts in the district and City Corporation. There are many contenders for the DCC chief post and some of the prominent names doing the rounds are of deputy Mayor T.J Vinod, KPCC secretary I.K Raju, former GCDA chairman N. Venugopal and former Mayor Tony Chammany.
While finalising the new DCC president, maintaining the group and caste equation will be a challenging task for the party leadership. If group loyalty is not taken into account, it will worsen the internal feud. T.J Vinod has the support of Ramesh Chennithala while I.K Raju, with the support of V.D Satheesan is a widely accepted name among party workers. Prof. K.V Thomas is batting for Mr. Chammany.
“Most likely, I.K Raju will be the choice as he is an ardent loyalist of ‘I’ group. Replacing V.J Paulose with a Latin Catholic leader from the city area will not be acceptable for a majority of party workers and leaders. Raju’s image as a clean, simple and down-to-earth person may also be considered,” said reliable party sources.
However, the KPCC will have to finalise some other name if the party high command has specific plans. Meanwhile, heated debate is on in the Corporation on replacing T.J Vinod if he gets selected as the district president. Some of the major ‘I’ group members in the council like KVP Krishna Kumar and K.R Prem Kumar are likely to replace Vinod if he quits.
