She will come, make a speech or two, have some difficult discussions, carry out some inaugurations and go back to Delhi. What else!” was how a senior Congress leader responded to a query as to how Congress president Sonia Gandhi was going to bring peace to the rift-ridden State party unit and ruling UDF during her two-day visit to Kerala starting Sunday.
Though the official Congress version is that Sonia is visiting the State to inaugurate the “Zero landless Programme” of the UDF and to open the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Studies, her actual mission is to put an end to the war in the State party unit between the groups of PCC chief Ramesh Chennithala and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
Even Congress leaders admit that Sonia’s visit is in the worst imaginable situation as far as the party and the ruling coalition it is heading are concerned as the protracted conflict between Chennithala’s ‘I’ group and Chandy’s ‘A’ group in the State Congress has now percolated into the UDF in a serious way.
Just on the eve of her visit, the relations between the Congress and its staunchest UDF ally Muslim league, second largest constituent of the coalition, have got strained badly with senior Congress leader and Power Minister Aryadan Muhammad describing league’s general secretary ET Muhammad Basheer as a hardcore communalist.
The Muslim league leadership has decided to air their strong objections to this comment from Aryadan when they meet Sonia on Sunday or Monday. The league feels that there is a concerted move from the part of a section of Congress leaders opposed to Chandy to target it.
This complaint of the league had come up as early as in June after Chennithala, during a speech in Kozhikode, quoted former State Congress chief CK Govindan Nair’s statement that succumbing to pressures of communal and community forces - like the league - was sure to become a liability for the Congress.
Chandy’s reluctance to induct Chennithala into his Cabinet as Deputy Chief Minister or Home Minister had infuriated the ‘I’ group to such a level that the PCC chief at one stage said, “The CM can go his way and I will go mine.” Sonia will have to take some tough decisions if she really wants to prepare the Congress for the lok Sabha polls by bringing the two sides together.
The other problem Sonia will have to deal with during her discussions with the top State party leadership is the strong allegations Chandy is facing with regard to the infamous solar scam, especially his alleged relationship with con woman Saritha S Nair and involvement of his former gunman Salim Raj, which are threatening to mar the poll prospects of the Congress.
Sonia will also have to take into consideration the report senior leader VM Sudheeran had given her on the mutiny in the party and the impact of the solar scam and the fears expressed by leaders like former PCC chief K Muraleedharan that the UDF may not get even a single seat in the lok Sabha election if the prevailing situation is allowed to continue.
One of the biggest challenges before the Congress president will be to give a clear message to her own party and those like the Muslim league on the campaign line to be followed in countering the increasing popularity of BJP-led NDA’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the context of the lok Sabha polls.
“It is not easy for the high command to solve these issues because any error in the efforts for that would widen the rifts in the party and the front and invite the criticism that it is taking sides. With the lok Sabha polls just six months away, the party does not want this to happen. I don’t think one Sonia visit is going to make any change,” said a group-neutral Congress leader..