One would have thought that, in the light of a host of suggestions from well-meaning senior State Congress leaders, the KPCC revamp would be accommodative of various groups. But reports have it that the exercise is, once again, old wine in new bottle, with the dominant groups led by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala sharing the honour, leaving only crumbs to the other groups.

The ‘signed’ list has been handed over to the high command, which is expected to release it within a week or so. The ‘jumbo’ list is said to boast as many as 22 secretaries! No wonder, it invited a sarcastic comment from Congress leader K Muralidharan, MLA, that future meetings of the KPCC will have to be held in a large auditorium instead of at the not-so-capacious KPCC office!

The neat division of the 14 district Congress committee chiefs’ posts between Chandy and Chennithala has, understandably, excited the anger of Congress leaders whose suggestions have been ignored. Senior Congress leader V M Sudheeran, who does not belong to any group, has already dashed off a fax message to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, protesting vehemently against the Chandy-Chennithala duo’s authoritarian moves, which he says will only deepen the existing divisions in the party. Another Congress veteran and Union Minister Vayalar Ravi has also conveyed his unhappiness over the ‘arbitrary exercise. Both the leaders, it is gathered are upset that consultations which should have preceded the revamp, as promised by the party high command, have not taken place.

The main bone of contention has been the control of Kannur DCC. The Vishala I group led by Chennithala is in no mood to concede Kannur, which is the fiefdom of MP, K Sudhakaran. If Kannur is non-negotiable, then the A group headed by Oommen Chandy, wants Thrissur. But the Vishala I group has ruled out handing over Thrissur to the A group as the district is considered the pocket borough of late K Karunakaran whose followers constitute a sizable section of the I group. Since the two dominant groups have failed to reach a consensus, they have left the final decision on Kannur to the high command.

One thing can be said without fear of contradiction: unless the high command drastically alters the list by including representatives of all the groups, there will be big trouble for the Congress in the state. The simmering discontent over the revamp exercise would, in all probability, boil over.

Ironically, it is the party high command’s inept handling of the situation, which has brought things to this sorry pass. Instead of ensuring that the KPCC reorganisation is based solely on merit and not on group loyalties, the high command has, wittingly or unwittingly, allowed Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala to call the shots, riding roughshod over the concerns and claims of other groups. The high command’s indifference to the opinion of other groups has emboldened Chandy and Chennithala to impose their writ on the state unit of the Congress.

But there are enough indications that, this time around, the dissidents will be in no mood to take things lying down as in the past. The high command would do well to stem the rot and energise the party with a reconstitution of the KPCC to the satisfaction of all the groups. Failure to do so would be to invite political and electoral disaster. (IPA)