Opposing views on whether the Congress national leadership should attend the consecration of the Ram temple at Ayodhya reportedly menaced Saturday’s crucial Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s (KPCC) executive meeting convened to put the party’s State unit on to a 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign footing.
By some accounts, Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran cautioned the party against appearing to toe a soft Hindutva line by allegedly remaining ambivalent about the pressing question of whether the national leadership would attend the high-profile religious ceremony.
The executive seemed acutely aware that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] had exploited Mr. Sudheeran’s public position to portray Congress as a party torn between two conflicting positions on the Ayodhya question, presumably with an eye on minority votes that has traditionally hewed to the UDF.
