THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The KPCC has decided to seek action against senior party leader K V Thomas for publicly challenging the AICC directive and for criticising the KPCC leadership by convening a press conference.
“The press conference and the statements made by Thomas is an anti-party activity and will certainly invite disciplinary action,” said KPCC president K Sudhakaran.
However, it is learnt that any action will be taken only after he attends the seminar. The KPCC has decided to submit a report to the AICC and adopt a wait-and-watch policy till he participates in the seminar.
“Any disciplinary action can be taken only based on the KPCC recommendation. Let the KPCC submit a report on this, then we will decide,” said AICC general secretary Tariq Anwar who oversees Kerala affairs.
Soon after Thomas declared that he would be attending the seminar organized by the CPM, K Sudhakaran, opposition leaderV D Satheesan and Tariq Anwar had a closed door discussion at the party head quarters. Satheeshan said KPCC would take a proper decision if Thomas attends the seminar.
Strained relationship with state leadership
Thomas, who had a five-decade long stint with the Congress, had serious differences with the state party leadership since 2009. He was not in good terms with Ramesh Chennithala and Oommen Chandy, who were heading the party at that time. During the Lok Sabha election in 2009, the state leadership decided to field two of the sitting MLAs K Sudhakaran and K C Venugopal in Kannur and Alappuzha respectively to wrest the seats from the CPM.
However, the state leadership were in for a rude shock when Thomas, who was Ernakulam MLA then, resigned from the state assembly to contest in the Lok Sabha election. The state leadership was against Thomas contesting from Ernakulam Lok Sabha constituency, which is considered as a safe seat of Congress.
His name was not mentioned in the list of candidates submitted by the KPCC to the party high command. But when AICC announced the final list of candidates, Thomas was the candidate in Ernakulam, much to the dismay of the state leadership.
Thomas, who was a trusted lieutenant of Sonia Gandhi, could overrule any of the decisions taken by the state leadership then. This created a rift between him and the state leadership. Since then, the state leadership had never given any recognition for him, but he used to get all plum posts with the strong relation he had with the 10 Janpath.
However, the transition of power in New Delhi from Sonia Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi cost him dear. Soon the AICC started alienating him and his contacts with the 10 Janpath started weakening. He was denied his sitting seat Ernakulam in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when all the sitting MPs in Kerala got seats.
Thomas had fast become a non-entity in the party and even his attempt to contest the assembly elections in 2021 turned futile as both the KPCC and AICC turned down his demands. When there were speculations that he would soon quit the party, he was given the working president post of the KPCC as a consolation.
This was not enough for Thomas as he again approached the 10 Janpath with a desire to contest in the recently held Rajya Sabha election. However, the AICC and KPCC were not in favour of Thomas, who had been in parliamentary politics from 2001 to 2009 in the state assembly, from 1984 to 1996 and from 2009 to 2019 in the Lok Sabha.
