A new troika has emerged in the Kerala Congress scheme of things with two powerful leaders of the party, AK Antony, CWC Member and close confidant of Sonia Gandhi and KC Venugopal, AICC general secretary (Organisation) and close associate of Rahul Gandhi putting in their weight behind the beleaguered KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran who was being pushed around by the “A” group and “I” group.
Sources in the Congress told The Pioneer, that it was the strength of these two leaders that Mullappally had took on both Chandy and Chennithala on the CAA issue and raised the red flag for the joint agitation with the CPM.
To solve the vexed issue of announcing the list of office bearers, both these leaders had thrown their weights behind the KPCC president and at the same time carefully seeing it to that the group managers are not offended.
The support of these two powerful leaders who have a major say in the organisational affairs of the Congress party has given a fresh impetus to Mullappally who is fast emerging as a major power centre in the state Congress.
With the state going to polls in 2021 and the Congress led UDF all set to replace the LDF Government led by the CPM, there are possibilities of Mullappaly being considered as the Chief Minister candidate as there is bound to be fight between Ramesh Chennithala and Oomen Chandy for the CM post.
There is already a suttle whispering campaign in the corridors of State Congress that an Ezhava leader has not don the mantle of Chief minister of the Congress since R Shankar who was Chief minister from 1962-64.
With the Congress led UDF winning nineteen of the twenty loksabha seats in the last general elections, the graph of Mullappally Ramachandran has gone high and the seven term loksabha member who has won the parliamentary elections from the CPM bastion of Vatakara is keeping his fingers crossed. “These are early days to comment on the Chief ministership and my primary responsibility is to work among the grass root and to strengthen the party machinery. 2020 we have to face the local body elections and in 2021 the assembly elections and these two are my present priorities”, Mullappally told The Pioneer.