The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s (KPCC) new tack to rewrite old rules framed by factional figureheads to decide the party’s future leaders at the electorally crucial block and mandalam levels has seemingly run into strong headwinds.
The leadership’s “disenchantment” with several district pradesh committees (DCC) failure to complete the reorganisation process without rancour reportedly cast an air of despondency in some measure over the party’s crucial two-day leadership conclave that kicked off at Kalpetta in Wayanad on Tuesday.
The KPCC felt the DCCs’ recalcitrance had “slowed” the move to make the party shipshape ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
By some accounts, KPCC president K. Sudhakaran, MP, and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretaries K.C. Venugopal, MP, and Tariq Anwar cautioned that re-organisation related factional rows could make the leadership appear weak and not in command in the public eye.
The conclave also deemed that “too much inward focus on organisational issues and factional tug-of-wars” could weaken the party’s electoral standing.
An insider said the AICC had repeatedly emphasised merit, people-connect and organisational skills over factional loyalty in selecting office-bearers. The accent was on transforming the Congress into an election-winning machine by offering a tent expansive enough to accommodate varied social, regional, and demographic interests and dispel the notion that the party was a loose confederation of feuding groups.
Congress leaders at the conclave reportedly underpinned the need to alter the party’s messaging to speak to the aspirations of the youth instead of solely dwelling on anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) grievance politics.
The conclave also reportedly noted the ongoing anti-corruption campaigns unleashed by senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala and Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan had put the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government on the defensive on the eve of its second anniversary.
The Congress also girded itself to deter the BJP’s foray into the UDF’s traditional Christian-dominated heartlands in central and northern Kerala by spotlighting the violence against the minority community in the BJP-ruled Manipur. It also planned to build on the advantage the UDF gained in the Thrikkakara byelection and the recent local body bypolls.
The meeting also resolved to implement a streamlined stratagem to strengthen feeder organisations, including fish, agriculture and industrial workers’, teachers and government employees’ unions.
