State of play
There is finally some consensus in the beleaguered Congress party in Kerala. The usual wrangling over the selection of candidates for the Rajya Sabha election was missing despite some pulls and pressures on the State leadership. Overriding the claims by seasoned leaders, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) last week nominated Mahila Congress State president Jebi Mather for one of the three seats that the party is likely to win from the State to the Upper House in the biennial elections on March 31. Her selection has not only addressed the question of nominating a woman, a youth, and a minority member at one go, but has also silenced the orchestrated campaign of the CPI(M) about the absence of Muslim leadership in the Congress.
Soon after the party’s setback in the Kerala Assembly polls last year, the Central leadership stepped in when senior leaders called for reforms in the party and demanded cohesive functioning in the State unit. The rally for an organisational overhaul saw the AICC replacing the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Mullappally Ramachandran with K. Sudhakaran, and MP and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Ramesh Chennithala with V.D. Satheesan.
