Intense criticism against the national leadership, demand for change in State leadership and furious attacks against those who had led the former UDF Government in the State were the highlights of the first day of the two-day Kerala PCC camp executive being held after the devastation the party suffered in the recent Assembly election.
The meet, which started on Saturday, is being held at a time when the State Congress is worried about the possibility of further erosion in its mass base which had suffered a massive dent in the Assembly election as an exercise to identify ways for strengthening the organisation through open dialogues and by bringing in fresh norms with regard to its functioning.
“The aim is to find solutions to the problems the party is facing through open discussions with an open approach. The meet will also strive to prepare itself to fulfill its mission of being a creative Opposition. We have to find out where we had faltered, what our weaknesses were and other such things,” said State Congress president VM Sudheeran before the start of the camp.
In the May 16 Assembly election, the Congress had suffered devastation with its tally in the House getting reduced to just 22 from 38 in the 2011 election. UDF, the then ruling coalition headed by the party, also underwent a similar collapse when its strength in the Assembly came down to 47 from 72.
However, what the meeting being held at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Development Studies near Neyyar Dam in Thiruvananthapuram saw on the first day, devoted almost totally to analyzing the reasons for the electoral drubbing, was the eruption of ferocious criticisms against the entire leadership.
One of the main complaints that came up during the discussions was that the central leadership was totally ineffective and that it did not have the capacity even to carry out agitations. The leader sho put forward this argument also said that senior leaders like AK Antony should not remain silent in total obedience to the central leadership.
Sources said that everybody in the top leadership – Sudheeran, former chief minister Oommen Chandy, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, Chandy’s bête noire in the party, and AK Antony – came under intense criticism. Speakers attacked Chandy saying that corruption in the former Government had contributed heavily to the defeat.
While PCC vice-president VD Satheesan, a loyalist of Chennithala, pointed out that the party was not properly prepared to face the election, MM Hassan, another vice-president and Chandy-loyalist, attacked Sudheeran saying that the people had lost trust in the party leadership, adding that it had failed to draw lessons from the defeat in the civic polls of November last.
Satheesan called for a generational change in the State leadership, alleging that the present leadership lacked credibility and a secular face and that there was a general feeling that it was neck-deep in corruption. The much-touted liquor policy of the UDF, which it hoped to help it in the election in a big way, was a totally ineffective, it was alleged.
The second day of the executive meeting, Sunday, is expected to see the presentation of a draft policy document on how the party should function in order to avoid further setbacks. One of the main proposals in the draft document is said to be that nobody should be allowed to hold organizational or parliamentary positions for more than three terms.
The draft, according to sources, also proposes that those carrying official positions for more than ten years should be removed and that leaders should function with total loyalty to the people. That the lower committees of the party should abide by the instructions of the higher units and that youth and women should be given better representation are some of the other proposals.