THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While former chief minister Oommen Chandy is keen on giving the temporary charge of KPCC president post to group loyalist and KPCC vice president M.M. Hassan, AICC leaders are against the move. They want Mr Chandy to take over, which will end lobbying by other aspirants. However, Mr Chandy wants organisational polls first lest it appear that he engineered Mr Sudheeran’s ouster. The race for the KPCC president is heating up with Congress president and vice-president, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi respectively, expected to be back in New Delhi later this week.
It was certain that since Mr Gandhi did not come out with a temporary appointment, what they are keen to see is a permanent man at the helm. ‘A’ group is in no mood to relent and they have already apprised Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala that the new KPCC president post would belong to them. But that has not deterred ‘I’ group leaders like K. Muraleedharan MLA and V. D. Satheesan MLA vying for the hot seat. Despite them reiterating that they are not interested in taking up the role, party insiders told this newspaper that these two leaders are in the race.
“Chandy is in a fix. He actually loves to be the KPCC president. But he is apprehensive of the image it will create if he is made a temporary president. It will take more than six months for the AICC’s election committee to hold the organisational elections. Mr Chandy knows that if either Muraleedharan or KPCC vice-president Satheesan is appointed on a temporary setup, they are not going to stay put there,” said a KPCC general secretary.
In fact, Mr Chandy knows that a leader like Hassan does not have support in the party unlike Mr Muraleedharan and Satheesan. A senior State leader told DC that what the central leadership prefer to see is Mr Chandy coming at the helm and not Hassan. “AICC leadership is aware of BJP making great strides in the State. For that a leader like Chandy has to come and they are not interested in bringing a ‘manager’ but only a leader. But at the same time it is unpredictable as to whether it is possible to hold organisational elections within six months”, added another senior Congress leader.
