Arch rivals in Kerala’s Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and State party president Ramesh Chennithala chose to drag their protracted faction fight in the organisation into the public domain on Monday by taking digs at each other during a function in Thiruvananthapuram.
In an indirect but obvious reference to Chandy’s assertion that he was not intending to change his work style despite being hit hard by the solar power scam, Chennithala, while speaking at a memorial for former Chief Minister Pattom Thanu Pillai, said that leaders should not be led by mobs but they should function keeping in mind the wishes and aspirations of the people.
“leaders should not act like people being led by mobs. It should be the well-thought out stands and decisions of the leaders that should be leading the people,” Chennithala said, adding that severe setbacks were sure to occur if leaders chose to forget the people. The PCC chief’s reference was obviously to the army of loyalists surrounding the CM wherever he went.
Chandy, who spoke at the same function later, gave a veiled but clear reply to Chennithala by saying that he was not intending to bring in any change to the agenda of the Government. “The agenda of my Government is development with care. No amount of protests will be able to change this,” he said.
“A campaign is going on here to create an impression that everything (related to the Government) is at a standstill (due to the solar scam). But we are going ahead with determination and hard work to ensure that nothing will affect the Government's works, come what may," he said, adding that his priority was issues concerning the people.
The faction fight between Chandy and Chennithala has been going on for the past several years but it hit a new low recently over the former's reluctance to induct the latter into the Cabinet as Deputy Chief Minister or Home Minister and it got further complicated after serious allegations were raised against Chief Minister over the solar power scam.
Formally, Ramesh Chennithala has declared the party's solidarity with the Chief Minister in the context of the solar scam but the general feeling in his 'I' group is that they were not responsible for adversities Chandy is facing and need not defend him against the Opposition's onslaught.