Kerala: Poster war erupts over leadership change after Congress election debacle

As Congress had to face a massive election debacle in recent civic polls in Kerala, the results of which were announced on December 16, there seems to be an internal difference of opinions between the leaders over who should run the state Pradesh Congress Committee. Earlier, various posters had been erected at different districts of the state including Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam, while Trissur saw flax board erected on Sunday.

Congress supporters in Kozhikode had also put up boards criticising the party's state leadership and some of the state leaders openly criticised KPCC president Mullapally Ramachandran for the party's poor show, according to PTI.

Many senior leaders, including former Union minister P J Kurien and three Lok Sabha MPs-- K Muraleedharan, K Sudhakaran and Rajmohan Unnithan had attacked Ramachandran, saying the organisational set-up of the congress party was weak.

Posters demanding to call Congress' K Muraleedharan to save party in Thrissur (source: ANI)

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Damage control attempt by Tariq Anwar

Congress leader K Sudhakaran's posters appeared in Thiruvananthapuram, who had asserted that he would take up the demand of leadership change with the Congress High Command. Meanwhile, posters have appeared against Bindu Krishna in Kollam, alleging her to be a BJP agent. This comes seemingly as Bindu Krishna had allegedly taken a stand against the party leadership.

State leaders have been openly criticising KPCC president Mullapally Ramachandran for the party's poor performance with Posters appearing in front of the KPCC office seeking to dissolve the district congress committee. Ramachandran on Thursday took full responsibility for the party's poor show in the local body polls while stating that his activities since he took charge as KPCC Chief have been an open book. "Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan," he said in response to the criticisms against him.

Congress general secretary in-charge of Kerala Tariq Anwar, who is trying to minimise the impact of the infighting, urged party leaders on Saturday to desist from airing their differences publicly.

"I earnestly hope that our leaders will realise that by trading charges against each other, they are giving the strength to the opponents. The need of the houris to fight the opposition," he said in a statement. He also urged all Congress leaders in the state to refrain from airing their differences publicly and instead take up their grievances at the party forum, while assuring that their complaints will be looked into and resolved.

Meanwhile, the AICC in a release said the Congress president has appointed P Vishwanathan, former MP, Ivan D'Souza and P V Mohan as secretaries. 

(with inputs from ANI)

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