When his position had become untenable almost three years ago following an avalanche of charges against him inside the State Assembly and outside over the infamous solar scam, Kerala’s Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had said, “I will continue in this position even by pocketing all kinds of humiliations.”
Again, when his resignation had seemingly become unavoidable last January after he was accused of taking bribe from a con woman, especially after a Cabinet colleague of his had tendered resignation over a similar charge on moral grounds, Chandy said, “My conscience is clear. I have done no wrong. Conscience is far more important than moral responsibility.”
Now observers say that the reported understanding in the Congress screening committee for the May 16 Kerala Assembly polls to select candidates on the basis of the single criterion of “winnability” and not to have a common yardstick for the process suggests that the party itself has made Chandy’s “survive-at-any-cost” philosophy its guiding principle for the polls.
This understanding was reached at in a meeting of the committee held in Delhi for scrutinising the jumbo list of probable candidates for the 82 seats (out of the total 140 in the Assembly) the party will be contesting in as the head of the ruling UDF, prepared by State unit of the party for May 16 election.
The committee is said to have effectively rejected the demand of State Congress president VM Sudheeran that selection of candidates should be done on the basis of some common criteria. Sudheeran had suggested that those who had already contested in four elections — there could be exceptions — and those facing charges of corruption should not be given tickets.
CM Chandy and his Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, fierce rivals in the groupism-ridden politics of Kerala’s Congress, had joined hands against Sudheeran to ensure that the names of all their loyalists, particularly all the Ministers and sitting MlAs including those who were facing serious graft charges, figured in the draft list.
If Sudheeran’s theory of common criteria gets accepted, many of the loyalists of the two leaders will be out of the race. Chandy loyalists KC Joseph and K Babu, both Ministers, had been contesting continuously since 1982 and 1991 respectively. Babu and Chennithala’s loyalist Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash are among those who are facing serious corruption charges.
“The screening committee’s reported mood does not surprise me. What else can it do in such a situation where there is no place other than Kerala for it to look at with hopeIJ But are Chandy and others sure that the voters will support their nominees just because they say they have winnabilityIJ” asked a Kochi-based psephologist.
He felt that even Congress president Sonia Gandhi or vice-president Rahul Gandhi could not oppose the position adopted by Chandy and Chennithala. “For the Congress, survival is most important at this moment. In that sense, the Kerala election is extremely crucial to it. A loss here can be fatal to the entire party,” he added.
However, Congressmen who see value in the war being waged by Sudheeran against the “survivalists” still hope that the high command will interfere in the case of some Ministers and MlAs. The central election committee of the Congress will be meeting only on April 1 and therefore a final decision can be expected only after that, according to sources.
Meanwhile, reports from Delhi on Tuesday suggested that Sudheeran was determined not to give in to the pressure of the “survivalists” without a fight. Though an understanding has been reached at in the case of candidates for 39 seats, disputes were continuing even late Tuesday evening over the seats where Babu, Joseph and Adoor Prakash have been contesting.
Indications are that 31 of the total 39 sitting MlAs of the Congress will contest again while some of the senior members are likely to stay away on their own. Sudheeran has proposed alternate names for the constituencies where Chandy and Chennithala plan to field their graft-accused loyalists.