THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite Oommen Chandy relaxing his stand towards the Congress leadership in the state, his group leaders are still apprehensive of the AICC assurance on organisational polls. The scenario is the same with the rival camp of Ramesh Chennithala. At the same time, the high command has got a feeling that Mr Chandy had taken advantage of them over elections, but things would go out of hand if they do not act fast as he was drifting away.
When Mr Chandy visited KPCC headquarters on Wednesday ending a month-long noncooperation, Mr Chennithala and president V.M. Sudheeran showed camaraderie before the media. The ‘A’ camp has a wait-and-watch policy as they feel there is time until the Assembly elections in five states. A Congress leader told DC that Mr Sudheeran’s decision to hold ward committee elections on March 1 was just a ploy. “If he were keen to hold organisational elections, he would have instructed the 21, 000-odd booth level committees to meet at least once," he said.
When the media probed Mr Chennithala on the prospects of organisational elections after the three leaders were huddled together at KPCC office, he remained tight-lipped. Leaders close to him like Joseph Vazhakkan, K. C. Venugopal and Kodikunnil Suresh have already expressed their displeasure in holding the organisational elections. “The compelling reason why a section of his camp is against it is that they originally belonged to the third group. They do not have adequate support at the grassroots. So the real ‘I’ group leaders will emerge victorious in party elections,” said an ‘I’ leader.
