Thiruvananthapuram: The new names of office-bearers of the KPCC is a reflection of the undue pressure the Congress faced in finalising the list.
Although there were marathon discussions for preparing the list, the leadership is relieved that all the various forums of the party are now 'ready' before the elections.
When the list of KPCC general secretaries and vice-presidents was released in January, it was announced that the list of secretaries would be released soon, but it took about seven months for it to finally come.
In the meantime, the list had to do the rounds of Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram several times for it to be finalised. Eventually, it was directed that Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala and Mullappally Ramachandran settle all the disputes and finalise the list in consultation with general secretary K C Venugopal.
It took a long time for the leaders to come together for this. They got ready to finalise it only when it was announced that Mukul Wasnik, who was in charge of Kerala, would be given the responsibility of Madhya Pradesh.
Despite the first list being ridiculed as being a “ jumbo”, 10 more general secretaries had to be added to it. The A-I groups got four each, and there were two as nominees of KC Venugopal.
VJ Paulose (Ernakulam) and E Muhammad Kunhi (Malappuram) are coming in also as former DCC presidents.
Jayalakshmi and Deepthi Mary Varghese were helped by the criticism that there was under-representation of women in the first list.
When K Sudhakaran insisted on the vacancy created by the death of K Surendran (Kannur), Kannur DCC office-bearer Martin George was made a KPCC office-bearer. The list also put an end to the allegation that former president of KSU VS Joy was being sidelined.
However, no final decision has been taken on the case of KV Thomas, who was made to withdraw from the Lok Sabha contest. He desired the working president’s post after making it clear that he did not want to be the vice-president. The list was sent to Delhi with a special note asking Sonia Gandhi to decide on Thomas' status.
The leadership had initially estimated the list of KPCC secretaries to have 40-50 people, but it ended up with the names of 96.
The A-I groups shared about 40 each.
All former KPCC presidents, except AK Antony and Thennala Balakrishna Pillai, had recommended names for the posts. There was also high pressure from MPs and senior leaders. KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran had tried to limit the number, but the pressure from various sections eventually emerged victorious.
While in Opposition, the priority of groups was to give posts to as many people as possible and thus to avoid complaints. All the important leaders have been included on the KPCC executive committee.
There were complaints about the name of UDF convener Benny Behanan missing, but the leadership explained that MPs and members of the political affairs committee are members of the executive committee.