Irked over the escalation of group war in Kerala’s Congress party, which has reached a stage where activists from opposing factions have started resorting to mounting physical attacks even against senior leaders, its allies in the Opposition UDF are examining the option of seeking intervention of the Congress high command.
The Indian Union Muslim league, Congress’s biggest ally in the UDF, and minor front constituent RSP have already expressed their grave concern over the ever-intensifying group war in that party. However, they have so far taken a stand that they would not like to interfere as it was an internal issue of the Congress.
According to senior Muslim league leader PK Kunhalikutty, the current round of group war in the Congress which had reached a flashpoint on Wednesday with former party spokesman Rajmohan Unnithan coming under an assault attempt from supporters of a particular group’s leader, is suicidal and could disrupt unity of the Opposition Front.
The Muslim league has already stated that it does not want to make any comments on the internal matters of the Congress but senior functionaries of the party indicated that they would not hesitate to approach the Congress high command demanding its intervention to end the group war in the Kerala party, at least for the time being.
“Differences of opinion are natural in a democratic party like Congress. It is not for us to give them any advice. However, we cannot allow such issues to cause problems to the unity of the UDF. Already there is a complaint that the UDF is inactive. Not many serious discussions or programmes have taken place in the front in recent times,” said a top Muslim league source.
He pointed out that the Muslim league had in the past forced the Congress high command to intervene in the Kerala affairs after intense feud erupted between the rival ‘A’ and ‘I’ groups led respectively by then chief minister Oommen Chandy and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala in the wake of the solar scam in which the former was allegedly involved.
The RSP, which had joined the UDF in 2014 by leaving the CPI(M)-led lDF of which it was a constituent for over three decades, also feels that the worsening internal problems of the Congress were powerful enough to affect the unity of the UDF. RSP leaders are of the opinion that the Congress should put an end to the group wars at the earliest.
The current round of group war in the Congress had started on Monday with K Muraleedharan MlA, an advocate of the ‘I’ group, launching an attack against State Congress president VM Sudheeran–and indirectly against his own group leader Chennithala-by saying that the UDF led by the party had been a total failure as the State’s Opposition.
Irked by this, Rajmohan Unnithan, known as a lieutenant of Sudheeran who is accused of nurturing a group of the group-less in the Congress, launched a counter-attack to which Muraleedharan responded equally acerbically. The developments culminated in a bid to assault Unnithan by Murlaeedharan’s supporters on Wednesday.
Observers are of the view that the now-intensified group war is part of a deliberate bid of Chandy, who has not been given any position in the party or its parliamentary forums, to get Sudheeran dethroned as PCC chief. Also, Muraleedharan is said to be planning to migrate to the ‘A’ group though. However, he has rejected this speculation as baseless.
The Congress high command on Wednesday imposed a ban on public statements by leaders but it soon became evident that group managers were not ready to take such instruction seriously.
Within hours of the announcement of the ban, Chandy came out with yet another controversial statement that the high command had promised to hold organisational elections in Kerala.