Thiruvananthapuram: The defeat in Chelakkara has triggered a row within the Congress. A blame game is ongoing over candidate selection and organizational weakness at the grassroots. Meanwhile, there are reports that Ramya Haridas, who was the Congress candidate in Chelakkara, lodged a complaint with the KPCC leadership against a few leaders for the lack of support during the campaign.
Opposition leader V D Satheesan, while commenting on the reasons behind the defeat, said, "If there are any organizational lapses, they will be seriously looked into.Compared to Palakkad, the UDF electioneering system was more intact and vigorous in Chelakkara. Hence, the reasons behind the defeat will be seriously analysed."
District leaders have already alleged that the party went ahead with the wrong candidate, which was the main reason for the defeat. A leader who was defeated in the Lok Sabha election was fielded again here, which was not acceptable to many leaders in the district. The audio clips of district leaders commenting against the candidate selection have now come out.
"Organizational weakness was one of the reasons for the defeat. Many of the booth-level committees came up only after the candidate selection. The reasons behind the defeat should be seriously reviewed," said KPCC working president and MP Kodikkunnil Suresh.
However, the opposition leader said he expected a victory for the UDF at Chelakkara with a slender margin. He was not ready to accept that the party erred in candidate selection. "Ramya was selected since she brought down the CPM votes in the constituency in the last Lok Sabha election. She had popular support, and the party expected that she would get through," Satheesan said.
But the district Congress functionaries in Thrissur believe that if it was another candidate, the party would have easily won the bypoll. "We could bring down the margin to 12,000 votes compared to the previous assembly election, which is the only solace," said a district leader.
Meanwhile, KPCC president K Sudhakaran has ruled out the reports that Ramya has complained against a few district leaders.