Refusing to learn lessons from the drubbing it received in the 16th lok Sabha election nationally and the setback in the State, the Congress party’s top leaders in Kerala are concentrating their energies on their battles against enemies within the party as the Government the party leads is rendered unable to address serious issues like the rise in prices of essential commodities.
Even middle level leaders and grassroots workers are complaining that the top leaders are more interested in the war of egos among themselves and efforts to protect their own interests and those of their loyalists than preparing the party for the two big elections Kerala is to witness in the next two years - the local bodies election in 2015 and Assembly polls in 2016.
Group-neutral State Congress president VM Sudheeran, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy heading the ‘A’ group in the party and his chief rival Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, the former PCC chief leading
the ‘I’ group, are now accused of turning every important issue into a ground to attack one another.
Kerala has been seeing this triangular war for the past several weeks over issues like the closure of 418 ‘sub-standard’ bars since April 1, the trafficking of hundreds of children without proper documents by Muslim orphanages from North Indian states, con woman Saritha S Nair’s rape charge against AP Abdullakutty MlA and Chandy’s proposal for a Cabinet reshuffle.
“The party president (Sonia Gandhi) had appointed Sudheeran by antagonising both Oomen Chandy and Chennithala in a bid to put an end to the faction war between them. Sudheeran has so far been known for his group neutrality but that neutrality seems to have transformed into some kind of factionalism,” said a senior Congress leader from Kochi.
The two main issues over which these wars within the party have intensified are the closure of 418 bars, which has brought Sudheeran and Excise Minister K Babu, an ardent Chandy-loyalist, into an open fight, and the child trafficking by Muslim orphanages with which the ‘A’ group is taking on Chennithala over the investigation his Home Department has initiated.