NEW DELHI: Earlier, Congress veterans M.M. Hassan and K. Sudhakaran were locking their horns over the Kerala state president position but now the fight seems to be over, though temporarily.
After the tumultuous week for the Congress in Kerala, where the two top party leaders, M.M Hassan and K Sudhakaran, had been battling it out to assume the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president position. The infighting, according to a source, has been sorted for now but may continue as a “shadow fight”.
After MM Hassan was made the interim president of Kerala unit until the end of polling in the state, Sudhakaran was expecting to resume the president post at the post-poll review meeting of the party state leadership last week. However, a section of leaders close to Hassan (A group) suggested that Sudhakaran shall wait until the results come.
AICC General Secretary In-Charge of Kerala Deepa Dasmunshi and AICC General Secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal too were being seen apparently to be backing Hassan and wanted Sudhakaran to wait for AICC’s decision which did not go down well with Sudhakaran. A legislator in the state said, “Sudhakaran has tried to keep good relations with KC Venugopal. Yet the party could be at the cusp of churn.”
Such a stance from the AICC had, according to sources, pestered the leaders close to Sudhakaran, who had even contrived of reinstating Sudhakaran by force, and take back charge against the wishes of the high command. And the same sentiment was communicated to the high command after which the people at the top had scrambled to resolve the matter by reinstating Sudhakaran.
A party insider said, “They could have continued with Hassan as the state unit president but then Sudhakaran would have had openly rebelled as he was heard to have said that he will take a proportionate decision if he is not being given back the position. Therefore to save the party from any kind of breakdown of its organisational machinery, it was decided that he should get back what he had.”
It is said that both the opposing groups of Sudhakaran and Hassan had been separately plotting to create a platform of ascension for themselves within the party. Hassan is said to have been backed by group A (the group led by A K Antony), the group that was in pursuit of his continuation as the state president.
Moreover, there are rumblings within his group that Hassan is the solid candidate to be the heir to Rahul Gandhi’s Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in case the Gandhi scion chooses to vacate the seat after results and in case the Priyanka Gandhi is not fielded as a successor to the seat. A leader aware of the matter said, “He is a strong candidate, he is being backed by Antony group therefore he is a very important person.” However, a legislator in the state on the request of anonymity said, “These are all rumours, there is nothing like anyone being considered as a candidate for Wayanad.”
According to analysts in the state, “The party has entered a phase where all the top leaders have become active and ambitious as they think the two terms anti incumbency of left government will directly benefit the Congress party and catapult it to become a party reigning the state. Therefore, everybody wants a bigger pie of the power and this everybody will try to assert themselves as much as they can.”