Despite the 20-day-long multi-level discussions among Central and State leaders, the Congress in Kerala is set to miss the June 10 deadline it had set for a crucial reshuffle of the party-led UDF Cabinet, thanks to an unprecedented escalation in the war between factions led by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala.
The plan was to bring in a balance of communities to the Cabinet to pacify certain major majority community organisations before the start of the State Assembly’s Monsoon Session starting Monday but the national leadership, which failed to establish a ceasefire between the warring factions, has now decided to postpone the reshuffle till the Session is over.
National president Sonia Gandhi and Congress Working Committee member AK Antony, who met the other day, came to a decision that reshuffling the Congress posts in the Kerala Cabinet in haste would cause more harm than good at this juncture. This decision became necessary after Antony refused to directly intervene in the Kerala issue.
On Saturday, Madhusudan Mistry, Congress general secretary incharge of Kerala affairs, indirectly confirmed to newsmen the decision to postpone the Cabinet reshuffle by saying, “The organisational issues in Kerala will be settled at the appropriate time.” Despite repeated queries, Mistry was unable to explain by when this appropriate time could be.
He also said that the State leaders, including Chennithala and Chandy, had been given strict instruction to restrain themselves from making public statements on issues concerning the organisation. Sources said that Sonia Gandhi did not want Congress leaders to wash their dirty linen in public just when the party was preparing for the lok Sabha election.
“The Congress high command understands that the issue has now become highly sensitive for the two Kerala leaders as both of them are considering this as a question of pride,” said a Congress source in Delhi. “Therefore, it will be difficult for the high command to take a decision without hurting the pride of either of them,” he added.
Though both the ‘I’ group led by Chennithala and ‘A’ group of Chandy are relieved that they could now suspend their war for some time, group-neutral Congress leaders are worried that the inability of the party to carry out a simple task of a “minor” Cabinet reshuffle could hurt its credibility in the eyes of the people.
“Till now, we have been jeering at the CPI(M) for its divisionism. But the Congress leadership must realise that this group standoff in our party has already affected the entire UDF and has caused an administrative standstill. It is a cause of concern during the run up to the general election,” said a senior Congress leader from Alappuzha.
The proposal to reshuffle the Congress-led positions in the Kerala Cabinet was mooted around May 18, the day Chennithala’s month-long Kerala Yatra concluded, in order to put an end to the majority communities’ complaint that the Cabinet did not have community equilibrium and that the Government was being controlled by the minorities.
The idea was to keep the majority communities, especially Hindu upper caste Nairs’ outfit NSS, happy by inducting Chennithala, a prominent Nair, into the Cabinet. Chennithala also was not against the proposal as he knew he could not continue for long as State party chief, a position he held for eight years, as PCC chiefs could not hold office for more than two terms.
However, the reshuffle efforts got derailed following the rejection of the ‘I’ group’s demand for the post of Deputy Chief Minister for Chennithala by the high command and that of the Home Minister by Chandy himself and his ‘A’ group. With this, Chennithala and his ‘I’ group decided that he should not join the Cabinet unless the high command instructed otherwise.