A key Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) leadership meeting on Monday will reportedly weigh the “rights and wrongs” of the disciplinary action against Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkootathil and the “organisational crisis” besetting the party in the Wayanad district.
Top KPCC office-bearers and District Congress Committee (DCC) presidents will attend the meeting. Notably, the conclave takes place against the backdrop of purported fissures within the Congress leadership over Mr. Mamkootathil’s suspension, despite the lack of a police complaint or case. In contrast, at least two Congress legislators facing trial in separate sexual exploitation cases remained in the party.
A section of the Youth Congress leadership supposedly loyal to Mr. Mamkootathil had suggested in social and conventional media that the party leadership jumped the gun and acted in haste, allegedly without giving Mr. Mamkootathil the right of reply or political space to mount a feisty public defence.
The KPCC meeting may also lay the groundwork for revamping the party’s digital media cell and holding accountable supposedly “Congress-aligned” social media handles responsible for the vicious cyberattacks against leaders who disavowed Mr. Mamkootathil, chiefly Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan and Uma Thomas, MLA, among others.
Worry over CPI(M) role
The KPCC also appeared concerned about the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)]’s attempt to intervene in the controversies plaguing the party in Wayanad. On Sunday, CPI(M) State Secretariat member M.V. Jayarajan visited the house of the late Wayanad DCC treasurer N.M. Vijayan, who committed suicide last year. His family is on a warpath with the Congress leadership, accusing it of abandonment.
The family has also accused the party of failing to redeem the considerable debt incurred by Mr. Vijayan for settling depositors in a Congress-controlled local cooperative bank, which faced allegations of financial fraud, and has threatened to stage an indefinite hunger strike in front of Indira Bhavan, the KPCC’s State headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, if the Congress leadership fails to honour its assurances, including from Wayanad MP Priyanka Vadra, who had visited Vijayan’s residence earlier. Mr. Jayarajan told reporters in Wayanad that the CPI(M) was willing to do its mite to save the family from penury. He also alleged that factional fighting and financial disputes in the Congress’ Wayanad unit had caused the “desperation-driven suicide” of at least five leaders.
Published – September 14, 2025 08:53 pm IST
