Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) State president P.C. Chacko is set to face stiff challenge to his post with Kuttanad legislator Thomas K. Thomas looking to confront him directly in the State committee elections to be held on Saturday.
Party sources said on Thursday that Mr. Thomas and his followers were looking to counter an alleged move by Mr. Chacko to assert his supremacy in the State unit with the support of senior leader and Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran. They are also accusing Mr. Chacko of entering into a secret deal with Mr. Saseendran to help the latter complete five years as Minister in violation of a seat-sharing agreement.
Regarding the candidature of Mr. Thomas, they point out the precedent in which one legislator leading the party when the other becomes a Minister.
Meanwhile, Mr. Thomas has approached the NCP national leadership to conduct election to the Alappuzha district committee, which has been suspended due to alleged irregularities.
The party unit has been witnessing an increasingly spiteful factional spat, with a section of leaders launching a stinging attack on Mr. Chacko, accusing him of attempting to bring the party under control by appointing his confidants in key positions. Mr. Chacko, who had quit the Congress last year, replaced T.P. Peethambaran as NCP State president in May last year.
The raging stand-off echoes a broader push by the old guard to curtail the influence of Mr. Chacko and his allies, who are mostly former Congress workers, over the State unit.
