KPCC meet puts off question of leadership

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JAN. 26. The KPCC executive meeting appears to have ended the current debate in the party about the leadership issue.

If anything, the leaders have been counseled to observe restraint in their public pronouncements, while the message was conveyed that the question of leadership is something which was to be considered after the elections.

The executive meeting that materialized for the first time since its constitution nine months ago nevertheless helped various groups to openly state their positions. But the two senior leaders, Mr. Antony and Mr. Karunakaran did not make any major statement. While Mr. Antony remained silent all through the discussions, Mr. Karunakaran made a brief speech and made his exit, leaving it to his supporters to have their say.

In the backdrop of the executive meeting, the Congress is expected to get a temporary reprieve from factional squabbles, at least until the ticket allocation begins. The AICC general secretary, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, made it very clear that it was for the State leaders to observe self-restraint and that it was not possible for the AICC to intervene in all minute matters.

One of the major decisions was to reconstitute the booth committees, and equip them before the actual campaign started for the assembly elections. Even though there was much talk against the practice of quota system in the allocation of seats, it is obvious that the party leaders would rather constitute the booth committees on the basis of group representation.

The work of constituting the booth committees has been made easier by the fact that similar committees had been established shortly before the local bodies elections.

Similarly, the proposal to hold district rallies next month is also intended to mobilize the party's rank and file in time for the elections. However, the party campaign would gather speed. Much would depend on the response that the Antony yatra would evoke. The party obviously is meticulously planning the Yatra, the first of its kind to be headed by an opposition leader in recent years, with Antony himself attending to some of the minute details.

The yatra, in which the UDF leaders would also participate, is expected to set the mood for the party workers. The resolutions passed by the executive are indicative of the kind of high profile anti-Marxist tone the Yatra and subsequent campaigns would take.

The party leaders hope that some of the group animosity generated in recent days would be neutralized by the yatra and the mass support it would get.

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Section  : Southern States
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