A day after the Congress High Command appointed Oommen Chandi, former Chief Minister, as the head of the campaign committee for the upcoming Assembly election in Kerala, discontentment among a section of the party leaders have come out in the open.
Chandi, a two time Chief Minister, has wide acceptability in the Congress as well as in the cross section of the Kerala society. Though he is known for his Christian spiritualism, the Hindus and Muslims in the State have no reservations against him unlike other leaders in the party. A person with more than six decades of clean political life, Chandi is certain to give the ruling CPI(M) a run for their money.
But by Tuesday, group leaders were out in the open challenging Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s decision to field the old warhorse as the de facto chief ministerial candidate of the party. Ramesh Chennithala, Leader of the Opposition, made use of his followers in the party to make known his displeasure over the cold shouldering he received from the Congress president.
“You cannot ignore the contributions made by Ramesh Chennithala during the last five years. The precedence in the party has been to appoint the Leader of the Opposition as the Chief Ministerial candidate in the next election,” said Chandrasekhar, a faction leader more loyal to Chennithala than the Congress.
The Congress High Command is worried over the powerful Christian lobby’s displeasure over the party for its stance on issues like Love Jihad and special privileges to the Muslim community, according to political commentator A Jayashankar. “It is to win over the Christian community that Sonia Gandhi has recalled Chandi to lead the Congress as well as the United Democratic Front,” he said.
This was substantiated by P C George, MLA and leader of Jana Paksham, a political outfit in Kerala. “The Marxists regime is discriminating the Christians in the allocation of funds meant for the welfare of minorities. The Muslims are allocated 80 per cent of the resources while the Christians are given a mere 20 per cent. This has definitely antagonised the Catholic Church,” said George who is expected to cast his lot with the Congress-led UDF in the upcoming election.
Tuesday’s meeting the senior Cardinals of the Church had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the subsequent statement by Cardinal George Alencherry that the Church does not have any untouchability with the BJP too has to be noted in this context.
Oommen Chandi, at 77, is not in the best of his health. Though the Marxists have left no stones unturned in attacking him and his family members with allegations of all kinds, Chandi came out unscathed and strong. “At the moment he is the one and only leader who is respected widely all over Kerala. He is the right choice for the chief minister’s post,” said George.
Another person to join the fray is Mullappalli Ramachandran, the president of Pradesh Congress Committee. But Ramachandran’s day one as chief minister candidate evoked strong reaction from the Muslim League as the former declared his intention to contest from Kalpetta assembly constituency in Wyandu district. Yahya Khan, the district chief of the Muslim League declared that his party would not give up its claim over Kalpetta, a traditional stronghold of the party.
The CPI(M)-led LDF which is plagued by a number of corruption charges could heave a sigh of relief if Chennithala and Ramachandran sustain their chief ministerial dreams.