Even as infighting within the State unit of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has hit its crescendo, all eyes are now on a scheduled meeting between party chief Sharad Pawar and NCP State president P.C. Chacko in New Delhi on Thursday.
While the dissidents seek to highlight the event as part of an attempt by Mr. Pawar to negotiate a way towards settling the issue, the State leadership maintains it as a routine organisational affair. The meeting, however, comes at a crucial time with the two factions openly facing off each other and the old guard fiercely attempting to put the brakes on a perceived attempt by Mr. Chacko to take complete control of the State unit.
While Mr. Pawar, along with NCP general secretary Praful Patel, is slated to meet Mr. Chacko on March 3 morning, the rebel faction led by NCP national secretary N.A. Muhammad Kutty is most likely to meet the duo later in the same day or the following morning.
“Attending the meeting along with Mr. Chacko are the senior leader T.K. Peethambaran, Minister A.K. Saseendran and Thomas K. Thomas, MLA. Mr. Pawar has assured to take up the complaint we have raised with regard to the unilateral omission of three senior leaders – Mr. Kutty, Josemon and Varkala Ravikumar, from the NCP core committee,” they said.
Commenting on the development, Mr. Chacko, however, maintained that the meeting with Mr. Pawar intended to discuss the organisational matters at the national level such as the formation of a new political alliance.
“As regards the complaints raised by Mr. Kutty and others, Mr. Pawar has already asked me to handle it at the State level. Based on this direction, a three-member disciplinary committee has been constituted with senior leader Suresh Babu as its chairman’‘, explained Mr. Chacko.
Factionalism in the party, which began with a revamp of the various party committees by Mr. Chacko, touched a boiling point with the nomination of his close aides in key positions, including that of the State corporations.
The raging feud took a new turn recently with Mr. Kutty, a national secretary of the outfit, serving a legal notice to its State general secretary K.R. Rajan for his alleged disparaging remarks to the media after an emergency online meeting of the NCP State committee.
