The Congress in Kerala is in deep crisis: The State Government it leads is beleaguered by scams involving its very head, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. Several Cabinet members are facing probes for corruption or allegations of it. One Congress Minister had to resign over bribery charge - though for some days. Evidences have come out to establish the close relationship at least two senior leaders have been keeping with scam perpetrators.
In fact, the State Congress is passing through one of the worst phases in its history just when Assembly election is to be held in less than three months. It was in this context party vice-president Rahul Gandhi called for a freeze of group activities. But the group war in the party has only intensified as top leaders are competing for the control of the party’s electoral campaign.
The ‘I’ group - numerically the biggest faction in the party - led by Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has already warned the high command that the party and the ruling UDF it leads may suffer defeat if it goes to the Assembly election under the leadership of his rival, Oommen Chandy, as he is standing tainted by serious allegations of corruption.
The ‘I’ group’s point is that the infamous solar scam, in which he is accused of taking crores of rupees as bribe from con woman Saritha S Nair, perpetrator of the solar scam, and having close relationship with her, has tarnished the image of the Chief Minister and it could be detrimental to the interest of the party to let him lead it in the election.
According to the ‘I’ group, the entire ‘A’ faction of the party led by Chandy is facing credibility crisis in the wake of the serious charges leveled against its leaders: Power Minister Aryadan Muhammad is charged with taking bribe from Saritha; Excise Minister K Babu had to resign over the charge of taking Rs 10-crore bribe from bar owners but he was retained in Cabinet.
Evidences have come out to establish that ‘A’ group’s chief managers Benny Behennan MlA and PCC general secretary Thampanoor Ravi have been keeping close relationship with Saritha. It has also become public knowledge that Ravi had asked Saritha to be kind to the Chief Minister while she deposed before the judicial panel probing the solar scam.
All these are factors the ‘I’ group is using as weapons against Chandy and his ‘A’ group but, for the time being, Chandy seems to be unfazed by the charges.