Kerala Youth Cong appalled at 'historic defeat', writes to Sonia demanding change of guard

The embarrassment for Congress continued as the Kerala unit of the Indian Youth Congress slammed the party's "historic defeat" in the state Assembly polls. In a letter addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the office bearers of the Kerala IYC stressed that the party must shed its lackadaisical attitude to prevent it from straying further into darkness. They called upon Gandhi to take disciplinary action such as sacking Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee chief Mullappilly Ramachandran, Leader Of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala and UDF convenor MM Hassan. Moreover, it called for the dismissal of the "jumbo committees" of KPCC, DCC, Kerala Pradesh Youth Congress, Kerala Student's Union and INTUC. 

The letter read, "We are appalled by the Historic Defeat, Indian National Congress has suffered in the recent Legislative Assembly Elections in Kerala. Unless the Party is ready to shed its lackadaisical attitude and implement corrective measures immediately, the Party will be straying further into darkness. As Office Bearers of Kerala State Committee of Youth Congress, we believe that it is our duty and responsibility to suggest corrective measures to awaken our Party from the deep slumber." 

Here is a copy of the letter:

Kerala Assembly polls

The polling for the 2021 state Assembly polls was held on April 6 with an impressive voter turnout of 74.06 per cent. After a hard-fought election campaign, LDF created history by becoming the first incumbent government in Kerala in nearly four decades to get re-elected. The tally of UDF, buoyed by its performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls where it won 19 out of 20 seats in the state, was reduced to 41 seats. In contrast, LDF bagged 99 out of 140 seats, 8 more than the 2016 election. UDF's vote share of 39.47% could not pose a challenge to the ruling alliance which garnered a vote share of 45.43%.

Widely credited for her handling of the COVID-19 crisis, Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja secured the highest margin of victory in the Assembly polls by winning Mattannur with a margin of 60,963 votes. All Ministers who were given tickets barring J Mercykutty Amma won their respective seats. In a shocking reversal for BJP, it not only won fewer votes as compared to 2016 but also failed to retain its lone seat- Nemom. While Kerala BJP president K Surendran lost from both Konni and Manjeshwar, 'Metroman' E Sreedharan could not secure a victory in the Palakkad seat.