Task cut out for Congress in Kerala

The reorganisation process may offer no silver bullet, but it can give the party a sense of direction

Some members of the Congress’s old guard in Kerala are up in arms against the of the party in the State. The drubbing the party received in the Assembly elections this year forced a leadership change which did not go down well with senior leaders such as former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and former Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Ramesh Chennithala. The new , and the Leader of the Opposition, V.D. Satheesan, came under fire from leader V.M. Sudheeran for not consulting veteran leaders ‘adequately’ while finalising the list of district Congress presidents. During this turbulence, disciplinary action was initiated against leaders who made disparaging public statements against the selection.

When the party went to the polls, its weaknesses included its unwieldy, top-heavy structure. The shake-up saw a nearly 500-member State Committee give way to . The new leadership is now gearing up to select district committee members — not more than 51 in bigger districts and up to 31 in smaller ones — by mid-December.