Group politics in Kerala's Congress, which many say is an inalienable aspect of the State party's style of functioning and culture, has taken a new turn with the rivals of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and State party president VM Sudheeran deciding to remain as a single faction under the leadership of Home Minister and former PCC chief Ramesh Chennithala.
The move is aimed at revitalizing the 'I' group which under the leadership of its founder, former chief minister late K Karunakaran, had commanded total control over the State party in the 1980s and 1990s. It also aims to limit the influence of Chandy over the party and the ruling UDF coalition it heads and to prevent the flow of partymen to Sudheeran's 'groupless group'.
A decision to this effect was reportedly taken at a secret meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday night. The meeting presided over by UDF convener PP Thankachan was attended by several leaders who were members of the 'I' group when it was being led by Karunakaran and had left it for various reasons after he got politically weakened.
Among those who attended the meeting were Karunakaran's son K Muraleedharan MlA, former State Congress president, and daughter Padmaja Venugopal, Parliament Members MI Shanavas and KC Venugopal and the former Kannur MP, K Sudhakaran. Chennithala himself had reportedly participated in the meeting.
Muraleedharan and other leaders said at the meeting that they were prepared to accept Chennithala as their group leader with the same respect they used to give to Karunakaran. The ‘I’ group has been functioning under Chennithala so far in the name of ‘extended I group’ merely as a platform of those opposing Chandy and the meeting was intended to bring all of them together.
Sources said that Tourism Minister AP Anil Kumar and Health Minister VS Sivakumar, both loyalists of Chennithala, attended the meeting held at the house of Vijayan Thomas, chairman of the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation. However, Sivakumar said on Saturday that no group meeting had taken place on Friday.
An interesting aspect of the new polarization in the State Congress is that it is happening in the context of the process of organizational elections scheduled to start soon. One of the main reasons behind the coming together of these leaders was the concern that more and more Congressmen had been getting close to Sudheeran.
The main job of the consolidated 'I' group will be to earn as many positions as possible for its members through bargaining when the organizational elections take place. The group has already observed that it has captured more than 70 percent of the booth committees to which elections were held. Chennithala and Chandy had joined hands to oppose the decision of party president Sonia Gandhi to appoint Sudheeran as Kerala PCC chief.