The traditional ‘A’ and ‘I’ groups in the Congress who feel they are being squeezed out of positions of power in the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) during the party’s ongoing reorganisation drive seem resolved not to go down without a fight.
The competing factions have struck an uneasy alliance to present their case before the party’s high command when All India Congress Committee general secretary Tariq Anwar arrives for parleys in Kerala on June 12.
The traditional blocks allege that an emergent third group purportedly led by Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan and PCC president K. Sudhakaran, MP, has manoeuvred to pack leadership slots from the block president and upwards with their loyalists.
A Congress insider says Mr. Anwar may not arbitrate in the dispute but coax the PCC to resolve the disagreement. “The PCC will resolve the confusion regarding reorganisation,” Mr Anwar told reporters in New Delhi.
Mr Satheesan, who has found himself at the centre of the factional feud, has stoutly defended the “non-partisan nature” of the party’s reorganisation process.
He claims the leadership ensured that the PCC remains a broad church for distinct Congress traditions peculiar to Kerala. The selection of Congress block panchayat presidents was overwhelmingly consensual. “I had no nominee of mine own,” he says.
Mr. Satheesan says factional leaders, who sought to put him at the centre of the current infighting, should introspect whether it will advantage political rivals and throttle the party’s election readiness and scuttle its efforts to draw a roadmap to victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. “Ultimately, the party is above groups,” he says.
Despite Mr Satheesan’s averment, it weighs against the KPCC and CLP leadership that they lack the zealous base endemic to the ‘A’ and ‘I’ groups.
However, the so-called “third group” seemingly draws strength from the calculation that the new generation of office-bearers nominated to key positions by the leadership will work outside the ambit of the factional traditions.
A party insider says the reorganisation of the Youth Congress and the Kerala Students Union will likely emerge as the next factional battleground. However, he points out, the Congress has historically survived the stresses and strains of organisational shake-ups.
