The groupism-triggered standoff between Kerala’s Congress president Ramesh Chennithala and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy reached a flashpoint on Wednesday after the former reportedly lambasted the latter by saying “The Chief Minister can go his way” and “There will not be a compromise anymore”, necessitating urgent high command intervention.
The outburst by Chennithala, leader of the ‘I’ group in the Congress, had its origin in a feeling of being betrayed and humiliated by Chandy, who refused to induct him into the Cabinet as Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister allegedly after running a campaign that the State party chief was going to join the Government. Chandy heads the ‘A’ group in the State Congress.
“The party-Government axis will never be the same again. The Chief Minister can go his way. I will go my way. There will not be any compromise anymore,” a newspaper quoted Chennithala as saying in an interview. The Chief Minister was also accused of humiliating him by inviting him to join the two-year-old UDF Cabinet.
Chennithala offered a limited denial with regard to the interview by saying, “I have not given any official interview to anyone or any newspaper”. For his part, Chandy on Wednesday afternoon claimed that he would not allow anybody to humiliate any leader, adding that he could not speak in detail about the question of Chennithala’s induction into the Cabinet.
Sources in the AICC office in Delhi said that a formula to end the feud
within the State Congress could come from the high command this week itself. Defence Minister AK Antony and Madhusudan Mistry, party general secretary incharge of Kerala affairs, were expected to discuss the issue with Sonia Gandhi on Friday or Saturday, they said.
The feud within the Congress over the issue of induction of Chennithala, who would in near future have to quit as State party chief as per a decision of the Congress Chintan Shivir at Jaipur, is over a week old and the ‘I” group was firm that he should get the post of Deputy Chief Minister with the charge of the Home portfolio.
However, the ‘A’ group — particularly Chandy himself — was not in agreement with this for two reasons: Firstly, it did not want to have a second power centre
within the Government which could soon become a headache for Chandy and
secondly because it would mean the replacement of Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, an ardent Chandy-loyalist, as Home Minister.
But the ‘I’ group was not ready to let Chennithala be inducted into the Government as the third top man. To solve the problem, Chandy and Chennithala held a one-to-one meeting on Monday but, according to reports, this caused the escalation of the standoff into the level an explosion leading to the current crisis.
K Sudhakaran, MP from Kannur and arguably the second-in-command in Chennithala’s ‘I’ group said on Wednesday that Chennithala was dragged into humiliation by some forces (within the party) and that they would be identified soon. Observers say that the ‘I’ group’s strategy is to complicate the situation so that the high command would be forced to step in.
That the induction of Chennithala into the Cabinet was not going to be a smooth affair was obvious even on May 18, the second anniversary of the Chandy Government, when Defence Minister AK Antony reportedly opted out of the discussions regarding this and told newsmen that he did not want to be dragged into the issue.