The ruling CPI(M) is on a mission to decimate the Congress in Kerala, if the latest developments in the State are any indication.
Two high ranking leaders of the Congress quit the parent party and joined the CPI(M) during the last few days. K P Anil Kumar, former general secretary of the party, who has considerable following in the State, resigned from the primary membership of the Congress and joined the CPI(M) on Tuesday. He was welcomed by polit bureau members Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and s Ramachandran Pillai at the AKG Centre and was received with red shawls.
Anil Kumar is the second leader of the Congress to join the CPI(M) in the last fortnight. P S Prasanth, another regional satrap from Thiruvananthapuram., who was the party’s candidate from Nedumangadu assembly constituency, too had shocked the Congress leadership by joining the CPI(M).
It is the fall out of the organisational restructuring of the Congress, with the appointment of K Sudhakaran as president of the KPCC and V D Satheeshan as Leader of the Opposition which led to a cascading effect in the party. Interestingly, no senior leaders from the Congress had joined the CPI(M) since T K Hamza, the then DCC president of Malappuram in 1987.
The CPI(M) had never encouraged party hoppers to join them. But the latest trend has come as a surprise to political pundits in the State. “They may be preparing for a clean sweep in the 2024 Lok Sabha election and the 2026 assembly election. The 2021 election results has enthused the second wrung leadership of the party to go for what the CPI(M) did in Bengal where they remained in power for more than three decades,” said a CPI(M) fellow traveller.
A Vijayaraghavan, acting secretary of the CPI(M) said the party was keeping its fingers crossed over the developments in the Congress. “There are chances of more and more leaders from the Congress joining the CPI(M). All those who accept and recognise the policies of the CPI(M) are welcome to join us,” said Vijayaraghavan.
Even former chief minister Oommen Chandi and former LoP Ramesh Chennithala who felt let down by the Congress High Command during the reorganisation of the DCCs are upset and are on a warpath with the party leadership.