Dissatisfaction is brewing in Kerala’s Congress over the party’s candidates’ list for the May 16 Assembly election released by the central election committee of the AICC late Monday night with complaints coming up to the effect that the high command had approved the list not on the basis of merit but with the eagerness to satisfy group leaders in the State unit.
Protests have come up from several functionaries who hold that the top leadership had failed to adhere to any criterion while preparing the list which, according to them, reflects an urgency to have a balance among the interests of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala, heads of the two strong groups in the party, and PCC president VM Sudheeran.
“For example, certain names that were in the active consideration of the screening committee failed to make it into the final list just because of its urgency to finalise it somehow. I would say that there was no need for them to take a week to prepare such a list,” said a top leader from Thiruvananthapuram.
All leading aides of the Chief Minister, head of the party’s ‘A’ group, except Benny Behennan MlA have found place in the list of 83 of the total 86 candidates the Congress has as head of the ruling UDF. As per the list, 33 of the party’s 39 sitting MlAs have been selected as candidates and all Congress Ministers, except two will be in the fray.
Those selected include bribery-charged Excise Minister K Babu, a top Chandy-aide, graft-accused Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash, known so far as an advocate of Chennithala’s ‘I’ group, and Culture Minister KC Joseph, who has been an MlA since 1982. All of them had made into the list at Chandy’s insistence and defeating the objections of the PCC chief.
“The list has proved one thing. Even the high command is afraid of acting against the wishes of the Chief Minister though it showed the boldness to drop his proposal to include Benny Behennan. But it has only symbolic value. The list also tells us how insignificant the PCC chief’s role has become in Kerala’s Congress,” said a pro-Congress paper’s senior editor.
Tuesday saw protests coming up in the Congress against the list in several places. Reports from Munnar said that R Rajaram, the party candidate in Devikulam, was prevented from entering the party office by supporters of PCC vice-president AK Mani. In Thrikkakkara, posters appeared against PT Thomas who was made the party candidate there instead of Benny Behennan.
Former State Women’s Congress chief Shanimol Usman’s name was under consideration till the last moment for Ambalappuzha seat but she was dropped after a decision was taken to hand over the seat to UDF constituent Janata Dal (United). “Several able personalities have been kept out of the list like this,” the journalist pointed out.
“This is a party being led by a woman, Sonia Gandhi. But it is a painful fact that it has been able to allocate only seven seats to women while the (CPI(M)-led) lDF has fielded 17 woman candidates. So much for the slogan of women empowerment in Congress,” said a source close to Shanimol.
But the camps of Chandy, Chennithala and Sudheeran are firm that this is a “great and practical” list considering the party’s emphasis on winnability this time in order to ensure continuance of UDF rule. Chandy will be contesting from Puthuppally for the 11th consecutive time and Chennithala will fight the poll from Harippad while Sudheeran is not in the fray.