N Sakthan, V T Balram, V P Sajeendran, V J Paulose named KPCC vice-presidents

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ending a long, uneasy wait, All India Congress Committee on Thursday announced the list of new office bearers of KPCC. The list approved by Congress president Sonia Gandhi was announced by AICC general secretary KC Venugopal in Delhi.
There are four vice-presidents, 23 general secretaries and 28 executive committee members in the list. As claimed by KPCC chief K Sudhakaran, the number of office-bearers has been trimmed this time. There are only four VPs – N Sakthan, V T Balram, V P Sajeendran, V J Paulose – in place of the 12 in the outgoing committee. Prathapa Chandran is the new KPCC treasurer.
The number of general secretaries has also been reduced to 23 from 42 in the earlier committee. There are three women general secretaries (Deepthi Mary Varghese, K A Thulasi, Alipatta Jameela) and two executive committee members namely Padmaja Venugopal and Sona PR. The list of KPCC secretaries hasn’t been announced.
Sudhakaran said there will be more women representation once the list of KPCC secretaries is announced in another 10 days.
Sources close to Sudhakaran said the high command made no changes in the list of nominees KPCC had submitted. Sudhakaran expressed hope that the list would be welcome to all groups and sections.
“Though group was not a criterion for choosing leaders, nobody was excluded because of their group affiliation. I don’t think any senior leader would have reasons to hit the street with protests over the list of office-bearers,” Sudhakaran said.
The initial reaction from the I-group, led by former opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, was positive. “We have enough representation. It’s not a bad deal for us,” said a source close to Chennithala. The A-group leaders were not ready for an immediate reaction, but they too were not miffed over the list.
Sudhakaran said the state unit has plans to accommodate leaders who were left out in the organizational rejig. “None of the leaders who worked against the prospects of UDF in assembly elections were considered for official posts ,” he said.
All Congress working committee members and former presidents of KPCC will be permanent invitees to the executive committee. All members of the political affairs committee, MPs, MLAs, AICC secretaries from Kerala and outgoing DCC presidents will be special invitees to the executive committee, said the list.