There is a huge fight within the Congress regarding ticket distribution for the Kerala Assembly elections. After Rahul Gandhi’s displeasure, the marathon meeting continued from 10:30 pm to 2:30 am on Wednesday night. In this high-voltage drama, MPs were clearly refused to contest elections and a fresh clash over caste equations has started.
For a Congress beat reporter in Delhi, 10:30 pm in the summer is usually the time to end the day’s work, but in this case Wednesday was quite different. The first list of Kerala Congress candidates had been released earlier in the day and I was driving home from the field. Then one of my sources told me that many vehicles were entering 10 Rajaji Marg, the residence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, indicating that the party was working day and night for some important work.
Out of curiosity, I made a few calls and learned that the Central Election Commission (CEC) meeting, crucial for the Kerala Assembly elections, was about to begin. From all this information it seems that Lok Sabha opposition Rahul Gandhi had expressed his displeasure over the ticket distribution process in Kerala.
According to sources, Rahul Gandhi had expressed dissatisfaction over the ticket distribution by the Kerala unit. He demanded that there should be a systematic presentation of caste equation, electoral track record, survey ratings and feedback from District Congress Committees in the list of candidates and not just give tickets to persons nominated by the state unit.
No to Rahul’s MPs
This CEC meeting started at 10:30 pm and continued till 2:30 am. Apparently, such late night meetings have been going on for at least five years Congress It was not a common thing in India, during which I worked as a beat reporter covering the importance of Kerala elections. Such incidents are seen more in BJP, where late night meetings are quite common due to the presence of Prime Minister, Home Minister etc.
The biggest decision taken in this marathon meeting was that no Lok Sabha MP (MP) would contest the assembly elections. At least 5 MPs are former PCC Chiefs. Sudhakaran, Adoor Prakash, Shafi Parambil etc. had expressed their desire for assembly ticket, but Rahul Gandhi clearly said that doing so would lead to Lok Sabha by-elections, would create confusion among the voters about the CM face and would weaken the party’s position.
Sources said that if the party gets majority, only MLAs can put forward the name of any MP for the post of CM and their opinion will be strongly considered.
Venugopal’s dominance in ticket distribution
At the same time, a source associated with the Kerala Congress election machinery told India Today/Aaj Tak that about 60 percent of the candidates are considered close to Lok Sabha MP and party general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal.
The source said that out of the first list of 55 candidates contesting elections from Kerala, about 17 candidates were from KC Venugopal’s faction, 9 from Ramesh Chennithala’s faction and 5 from VD Satheesan’s faction. Many MPs also secured 1 or 2 seats for people close to them.
According to sources, Smashing Tharoor did not ask for tickets for any of his candidates and he did not have any significant interference in the ticket distribution.
bet on youth
A Congress leader who attended the Chief Election Commission meetings told India Today that names of many state leaders had come up, but tickets were given only after thorough investigation like survey ratings and feedback from the district Congress committees. The party, along with its alliance partners, is expected to contest about 95 out of 140 seats. Of the 22 sitting MLAs, the party has re-fielded 19 candidates and is now quite confident of victory after ticket distribution.
Also, this time Congress has played a big bet on Christian, Nair and Ezhava communities to solve the social mathematics of Kerala. The party has given tickets to 22 Christian candidates (including 10 from the Syro-Malabar community), 21 Nair and 20 Ezhava candidates.
Apart from this, 12 Muslim and 3 Brahmin faces have also been fielded in the election field. Giving preference to youth, the age of 52 out of 92 candidates has been kept below 50 years. The party hopes that this ‘social engineering’ will take it closer to power.
Rebellion in the party on women’s representation
Even after such a long effort, all is not well within the party. Congress spokesperson Shama Mohammad has raised questions on the lack of ‘women’s representation’ while tagging Rahul Gandhi on the social media platform ‘X’. He expressed displeasure that out of 92, only 9 women have been given tickets.
If sources are to be believed, Shama herself wanted a ticket from Kannur seat, but K. He is very unhappy with the state leadership as someone else got a chance in place of Sudhakaran.
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