Months after its emphatic Assembly election victory, the Congress in Kerala is yet to settle the question of KPCC leadership, with factional equations and competing power centres complicating the party’s organisational reset.
Thiruvananthapuram: Despite the sterling victory clinched in the Assembly polls early this year, the Congress in Kerala is yet to narrow down its choice for the party’s state chief, exposing deep-set organisational shortcomings. With no big elections round the corner, the AICC has signalled that it prefers to go slow on the matter instead of rushing to a decision that could upset the delicate factional balance maintained during and after the Assembly polls.
The fact of the matter is that neither the central leadership nor the state party apparatus has been able to arrive at a consensus on a candidate to replace Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph, who has become Electricity Minister in the V. D. Satheesan-led UDF government. Joseph continues to hold the KPCC post for now.
Sunny Joseph was made KPCC president over a year ago, replacing Kannur MP K. Sudhakaran after many in the party voiced displeasure over the high-handed manner in which he steered the state unit. After being removed as state party chief, Sudhakaran made a strong pitch to contest the Assembly polls, apparently eyeing a ministerial berth in the event of the party coming to power. However, he was cold-shouldered by the central leadership. Nor did he muster much support from the state unit. As he persisted with his claim right up to the declaration of the elections, the high command took a firm stand that the existing MPs from the state need not contest the Assembly polls.
This episode, played out as a listless subplot ahead of the polls, virtually pushed Sudhakaran to the sidelines as an inconsequential player during the campaign and the post-poll ministry formation process. Since then, he has been sulking on the margins. So have many senior leaders, including former KPCC presidents, who have been pushed to the periphery with the emergence of V. D. Satheesan, who was Leader of the Opposition before becoming Chief Minister, and AICC General Secretary K. C. Venugopal as the principal power centres in the party in the state.
Despite having been outpaced by Satheesan in the chief ministerial race, Venugopal still enjoys substantial support in the state party hierarchy and also among the legislators. The party top brass, however, appears to desist from giving greater leverage to Venugopal in reshaping the state party structure since he is perceived to be a factional power centre. Senior leader Ramesh Chennithala has managed to escape without getting battered in the factional crosshairs by consenting to become Home Minister in the Satheesan ministry after his failed bid for the top slot.
After becoming Chief Minister, Satheesan has chosen to concentrate on governance, steering largely clear of organisational affairs, unlike some of his predecessors who sought to keep both the party and the government under their control. As of now, the names under consideration for the KPCC post include multi-term Lok Sabha member Kodikunnil Suresh and Benny Behanan, also an MP. Other names have also figured in the leadership discussions over the past few months.
A Key State in Congress’s Scheme
Kerala has always been a key state in the Congress’s scheme of things. Despite being regarded as a Left stronghold, the Congress, along with its allies, has held its ground right from the beginning, shaping the electoral contest into a largely bipolar one. Even as governance in the state has swung between coalitions led by the Communists and the Congress, the latter has often had the upper hand in sending members to the Lok Sabha.
Kerala MPs form one of the largest state contingents of the Congress in the present Lok Sabha. Of the state’s 20 Lok Sabha seats, 14 are held by the Congress. The UDF’s tally goes up to 18 with two MPs from the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and one each from the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Kerala Congress. The CPI(M) and the BJP won one seat each in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Since 2019, Kerala’s significance in the Congress’s scheme has been further elevated after the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency became closely associated with the Gandhi family. The seat is now represented in the Lok Sabha by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra after her brother Rahul Gandhi chose to retain Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.
Student and Youth Outfits Unhappy
The organisational lag has also had its reflection on the party’s student and youth fronts. In the recent college union elections in institutions affiliated with the University of Kerala in the southern districts, the Congress’s campus outfit, the Kerala Students Union (KSU), suffered setbacks at the hands of its principal rival, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), the student wing associated with the CPI(M). This has come despite the Congress making youth mobilisation one of its key organisational priorities.
