Row in Kerala PCC over the holding of organisational polls

P VENUGOPALTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NOV 28:Differences have cropped up among the Kerala PCC leadership on the question of whether the party sh...

P VENUGOPALTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NOV 28:Differences have cropped up among the Kerala PCC leadership on the question of whether the party should go in for organisational elections or take the less risky route of reconstituting the PCC.

To resolve the dilemma to the satisfaction of all groups, a sub-committee has been formed with Oommen Chandy, Aryadan Mohammed, G. Karthikeyan, K. Muraleedharan and P.P. Thankachan as members.

Although the AICC has set December 31 as the deadline for distribution of primary memberships to facilitate condu-cting of organisational polls early next year, the state unit has so far shied away from launching the membership enrollment drive as any initiative in this direction, it is feared, would open a Pandora’s box and shatter the unity carefully nurtured on the eve of the last Lok Sabha election.

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The task has been further complicated by the party’s amended constitutional provision to set apart 33 per cent organisational posts for women and 20 per cent for Backward communitiesand minorities. Therefore, it has become a question of who will bell the cat as far as the conduct of organisational elections in the state Congress is concerned.

The state leadership is seriously divided on the issue. The camp headed by CWC member K. Karunakaran is in favour of reconstituting the KPCC rather than going through the protracted process of organisational elections. But another CWC member A.K. Antony is reportedly opposed to the Karunakaran line and is of the view that only organisational elections, which have not taken place in Kerala since 1991, would restore inner-party democracy and lend legitimacy and credibility to the leadership.

Karunakaran is understood to have expressed his displeasure at the “failure” of the party and its allies in the UDF to function as an effective Opposition in the state. Karunakaran is particularly peeved at the lack of adequate response from the Congress and UDF circles to the state government’s “politically-motivated” moves against him in the Palmoleincase in which the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has filed a chargesheet against him.

Karunakaran is therefore of the view that only an early recasting of the KPCC would revitalise the party in Kerala and equip it to play the role of an effective Opposition.

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But Antony is keeping mum on the issue. Moreover, the Youth Congress and KSU leaders have taken an aggressive stand that the long-pending recasting of the two organisations too should be undertaken along with the reconstitution of the KPCC.