THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Chengannur bypoll defeat is turning out to be a big problem for
Congress as the severe drubbing has given rise to two demands: change in party leadership as well as a total revamp in the party structure. Lower-rung leaders of the party, who have no group affiliations, sent a bevy of complaints to
AICC president
Rahul Gandhi against senior group leaders; especially
Ramesh Chennithala and Oommen Chandy.
They urged the AICC president to intervene in this matter immediately. They made it clear that the party will fare miserably in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections if it goes ahead with the present leadership.
“The party lost a golden opportunity to defeat LDF despite having a favourable political atmosphere. The plaguing groupism in the party led to the defeat of the party candidate in Chengannur,” said former
KPCC president V M Sudheeran.
It was a shock defeat for the Congress, something the party candidate too did not expect. Now UDF candidate D Vijayakumar has asked the KPCC leadership to probe the reasons for his defeat. He had alleged that party functionaries were not active during campaigning.
KPCC has convened a meeting of the political affairs committee and executive committee on June 11to analyse the reasons for the bypoll defeat. “KPCC will go for a detailed study to find the reasons for the Chengannur debacle and it will be done from the booth level,” said KPCC president MM Hassan.
KSU and Youth Congress have also come out against the party leadership in the state for the defeat in Chengannur. “KSU has some strong comments to make after the defeat in Chengannur. This will be placed before KPCC at the meeting,’’ said KSU state president KM Abhijith.
The present leadership of the party and the legislature party are being questioned by leaders as they believe that they will not able to rehabilitate the Congress from the present crisis.