Poster war in Congress party in Kerala intensifies

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 25 (IANS) With just a few days left for the announcement of the 14 district Congress Committee presidents in the Congress party in Kerala, an ugly poster war has broken out against the top leaders of the party and the latest victim is Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan and that too at his home turf in Ernakulam.

By now those who have come under severe attack include Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala, Shashi Tharoor and a few others.

The latest attack against Satheesan came when State party chief K. Sudhakaran reached Delhi for the last round of consultation with the party high command and also AICC organisational general secretary K.C. Venugopal.

One reason why this time things have gone from bad to worse in the Congress party is on account of the high command stepping in and arbitrarily announcing the names of Sudhakaran and Satheesan for the top posts.

Hitherto the Congress party since the turn of the present century was firmly under the control of Chandy and Chennithala, but with the walloping that the party suffered in the April 6 assembly polls, when for the first time a CPI-M led government under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan retained power, the high command decided to step in and act on its own.

A media critic on condition of anonymity said given the turn of events ever since the Chandy-Chennithala duo has been sidelined by the high command and Satheesan and Sudhakaran appointed, uneasy calm is prevailing in the party.

"This does not augur well for the party and there is every chance for a free for all in the party when the final list of the 14 will be announced. The first signs that things are not in order is form the poster war that has broken out against the top leaders. If better sense does not prevail among the high command and also among the top brass in the party, things could well be bad for the party," said the critic.

Even though the erstwhile Chandy-Chennithala factions do not exist in the same force as they used to be in the past, today the scene is they are both in unison and this is where Satheesan and Sudhakaran could find the going tough.