Congress to retire Kerala old warhorses?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It’s a season of open discontent in the Kerala unit of Congress but those in the know say that it is not likely to extend beyond a lot of sound and some fury. Reason: The Congress high command in Delhi wants the old guard sidelined and rampant factionalism neutralised, and to that purpose it will be willing to put up with KPCC president K Sudhakaran’s rather brash and authoritarian style of functioning.From Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala to V M Sudheeran and Mullapally Ramachandran, a formidable lineup of disgruntled leaders have come out against Sudhakaran and opposition leader V D Satheesan but the high command remains unmoved. This was the reason why even when two senior leaders like Chandy and Chennithala flayed the new leadership openly, the high command asked the state leadership to resolve their issues locally. To Chandy and Chennithala’s chagrin, no AICC emissary was despatched to patch up differences. The leaders were contacted only by AICC general secretary Tariq Anwar against whom Chandy and Ramesh have raised serious allegations that he is dancing to the tunes of Sudhakaran and Satheesan. “There is no question of change of guard in the party again. Sudhakaran is doing well by leading the party. The issues raised by senior leaders are being considered with due importance,” Anwar said. In fact, the disgruntled leaders’ main concern is their access to the high command has been severely restricted. The state leaders are unable to reach out to Rahul Gandhi who, these days, goes with whatever AICC general secretary K C Venugopal advises. Meanwhile, Sudhakaran and Satheesan, who were scheduled to reach Delhi for discussions with the high command on the appointment of new KPCC office-bearers, on Tuesday put off their trip. This was apparently Rahul Gandhi is to visit Kerala on Wednesday and Anwar will be away from Delhi and will return only on October 2. Since the assembly session is beginning here on October 4, the leaders have decided to visit New Delhi only in the second week of October.