Showing a sense of urgency in carrying out a campaign isn’t one of the strong points of the Congress in Kerala these days. The sole exceptions to this trait are the party’s meticulous work in the Thrikkakara byelection and, more recently, its sustained solidarity with the protest against the SilverLine semi high-speed railway. So, it did not surprise anyone when, after a day’s euphoria, the party chose to sidestep the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) clean chit to former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and senior Congress leaders in the sexual harassment complaint filed by the prime accused in the solar investment fraud case. The case had shaken the foundations of the Chandy-led United Democratic Front (UDF). It was leveraged by the Left, which was in the Opposition, to mobilise public opinion against the Congress and to subsequently wrest power in 2016. Given that the road to victory was long and arduous, many leaders feel that the party could have used the win to revitalise the flagging spirits of its cadres and to win back disenchanted sympathisers.
That it has not happened points to some niggles in the party organisation. While the Congress in Kerala is now bereft of the ‘groupism’ that sullied its image in public for a long time, new leadership equations in the party have thrown up fresh challenges. Fighting illness, Mr. Chandy himself is steering clear of public glare. His reaction to the CBI’s report was by and large limited to a social media post. Many senior leaders have taken a back seat ever since K. Sudhakaran was made the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president and V.D. Satheesan promoted as the Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly.
Poor health is troubling Mr. Sudhakaran, making him unavailable for many programmes. And when he does show up, his gaffes hog the headlines, often embarrassing his party or its allies. Mr. Satheesan has been embroiled in a tussle with Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, after Mr. Tharoor embarked on an unusual Kerala tour, to the consternation of the party unit in the State, to bolster ties with key allies such as the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) besides prominent social groups. Mr. Tharoor’s ‘popularity’ with the IUML and the ‘affection’ he has earned from caste and community organisations have made senior leaders restive, and reasonably so. Their main grouse is that he is not focusing much on his constituency. His stance on the protests against the Adani Port at Vizhinjam — widely seen as antithetical to his party’s stance — has called into question his willingness to toe the party line and join hands with the Congress in its programmes.
Mr. Tharoor’s insouciance hasn’t made things better. His recent jibe, “one Nair cannot stomach the wellbeing of another Nair”, presumably targeting another senior leader form the community, at a meeting of the Nair Service Community (NSS), was lapped up by the media. The NSS, meanwhile, deftly used this as a stick to beat ‘ungrateful’ leaders with. Mr. Tharoor has, however, resumed his solitary tour unmindful of the controversies surrounding it, and the party central leadership has urged everyone to refrain from making public remarks.
Amidst all this, the Congress is understood to have begun the groundwork for the 2024 general elections by following its ‘Vision-2024’ roadmap. It has started booth-level work, aimed at adding people to the voters’ list; and district office bearers and sitting MPs have been tasked with carrying out the legwork for the polls in all Assembly and parliamentary constituencies.
But it is the delay in reorganising the party in Kerala that is standing in the Congress’s way in planning and successfully carrying forward political campaigns. While the party central leadership remains steadfastly reluctant to take a call on whether or not to retain Mr. Sudhakaran as KPCC president, the State unit isn’t showing any hurry to carry out the much-delayed reshuffle either. At last, committees have now been constituted to select booth, mandalam and block-level office-bearers in consultation with senior leaders. The latest deadline to complete the reorganisation process is March. Unless that happens, the party cannot hope to close ranks and be capable of undertaking impactful campaigns.
