Kochi: Hunger for power in Congress leading it to existential crisis in a place where it thrived under the leadership of Chief Ministers late K Karunakaran and A K Antony who used to carry his resignation letter in pocket, political observers said.
After winning a total of 63 seats out of 103 pocketed by United Democratic Front led by Congress in the 140-member assembly, three top leaders Ramesh Chennithala, K C Venugopal and V D Satheesan have brought shame to the party by fighting in the open to get the Chief Minister’s post.
Their supporters have taken to streets to show their allegiance to their leaders, making things nasty.
At a time when they should stand united to take on the ever growing BJP, they are more concerned to fulfil their personal ambitions forgetting that BJP has won three assembly seats and came close to many.
Even as once upon a time late Chief Minister Karunakaran and former Chief Minister Antony were two extreme power houses, they shared a healthy relationship setting examples for future leaders to emulate.
It was their supporters who played ugly games to settle scores with others backed by the media which invented A group for those backing former Chief Minister Antony and I group for those supporting Late Chief Minister Karunakaran.
These groups grew in strength with the passage of time culminating in the ISRO spy case allegedly tailored to flush out Karunakaran from Kerala.
With the death of Karunakaran the baton went into the hands of late Chief Minister Oommen Chandy heading the ‘A’ group and Chennithala ‘I’ group.
A party which had leaders like Sardar Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Kamaraj who rejected the offer to become Prime Minister.
The intensity of their rivalry came down with the changed political environment following the rightist BJP coming to power at the Centre.
Things are getting more complicated with the CPM-led Left front getting weaker.
Congress leaders’ fight contiue
