With Congress president Sonia Gandhi accepting Kerala PCC chief’s plea to allow him to continue in his present post and not to force him to join the solar scam-tainted Cabinet of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy with an insignificant portfolio, the group war in Kerala’s party unit is back to square one even after the multi-level, dramatic discussions in New Delhi.
“Chandy has won his ego war against Ramesh Chennithala by humiliating him once again with a Cabinet rejig plan but has lost his political game to give his Cabinet a new face by inducting him. Ramesh has cleverly avoided being drawn into the trap Chandy set,” was how a senior, group-neutral Congress leader described Friday’s developments in Delhi.
“Both the leaders might have scored their respective limited wins but the loser in the game certainly is the (Congress) High Command, which had wanted a patch-up between the ‘A’ and ‘I’ groups respectively of Chandy and Ramesh in the context of the coming lok Sabha polls. Friday’s events should disappoint Sonia Gandhi,” said the leader.
After a meeting with Sonia Gandhi on Friday afternoon, Chennithala told mediapersons, who were expecting him to accept her admonition to join the Chandy Cabinet, that there would be no Cabinet reshuffle and that he would continue as State Congress president (at least till the lok Sabha elections were over). “I will continue as KPCC president and am not going to join the Chandy Cabinet. My job will be to prepare the party for the next lok Sabha election,” Chennithala said outside 10 Janpath on Friday. “I informed Sonia Gandhi about this stand and she endorsed it. There will be no Cabinet reshuffle,” Chennithala added.
According to Congress sources, the latest developments will lead to the intensification of the war between the Chandy-Ramesh groups. “What is going to happen is that the Ramesh group would now adopt a position that Chandy and his company alone will be responsible for solving the Government’s problems and the party unit has no role in it,” said the Congress leader. In the present context, the ‘I’ group of Chennithala - in effect, the party — is unlikely to whole-heartedly support Chandy and his Government, trapped in a deep crisis over the solar power scam, as it had done so far. After his ‘first humiliation’ in May, Chennithala had said, “The CM can go his way. I will go my own,” but had softened that stand later.
Observers feel that the debacle the development has presented for the Congress would have a domino effect causing widespread disputes in the party-led UDF coalition. Chandy had allegedly assured certain lead UDF partners that he could try to satisfy their demands if they supported him in his move to induct Chennithala into the Cabinet. However, the main reason for Chennithala’s refusal to join the Cabinet is said to be Chandy’s inability to offer him the post of Deputy Chief Minister as the Muslim league staked claim for that position or that of the Home Minister as Chandy had no way of convincing present incumbent Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan of the Congress on the need for him to relinquish it.