Thiruvananthapuram: After holding talks with Congress leaders from the State for three days, AICC leadership has come to a conclusion that merit alone should be considered for future appointments and candidature and community angle should not be encouraged in the line of CPM.
KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran will be continuing in his post for another three to four months. AICC is keen to nominate a new president by then, and the leaders who are in the rat race includes former KPCC president K. Muraleedharan, vice president V. D. Satheeshan and Kannur leader K. Sudhakaran.
Over 70 Congress leaders from the State had called on AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi over a period of three days until Saturday. After hearing the woes of those leaders, Mr Gandhi has come to the conclusion that the left party’s ‘good and valid’ policies have to be emulated to revive the beleaguered KPCC leadership. A top Congress leader told DC that when it comes to heading the CPM in the State, they have not considered caste equations and merit alone was the criterion.
“When it came to the appointment of left leaders like V. S. Achuthanandan, Pinarayi Vijayan, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Vaikom Viswan, Veliyam Bhargavan, Pannyan Raveendran and Kanam Rajendran, the leadership considered merit and not caste equations,” said a top Congress leader. At the same time, the AICC leadership felt that when the UDF government was in power, G. Sukumaran Nair, NSS general secretary, put pressure on them to part with ‘key posts’ for Nair leaders.
However, when the LDF government came to power, there was no such pressure from any community leaders which has to be taken into account. “AICC is not keen to give the party president’s post to former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy as he had already owned responsibility for the poll debacle. They have decided to nominate the new KPCC chief in three to four months as organisational elections would mean more breeding ground for factional politics implying that the new PCC chief would be appointed,” said a leader from New Delhi.
Thrikkakara MLA P. T. Thomas’s name is also doing the rounds for the post of PCC chief. But it was during his stint in Idukki that factional politics was more rampant and had to come to Ernakulam district to contest the election. Another name which was earlier considered by the AICC leadership was that of P. C. Chacko, who gave a clean chit to the former UPA Government in the 2G spectrum case.
But Congress leaders vouch that he may not know even the name of DCC presidents. Since Mr Sudhakaran is not much popular outside Kannur district, chances of becoming PCC chief is most likely to fall on either Mr Muraleedharan or Mr Satheesan.
