Sonia loyalist P C Chacko quits Congress, faults high command

Sonia loyalist P C Chacko quits Congress, faults high command

K RAVEENDRANUpdated: Thursday, March 11, 2021, 12:00 AM IST
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PC Chacko |

Thiruvananthapuram: P C Chacko, a Congress leader from Kerala and once a staunch Sonia Gandhi loyalist, has resigned from the party, alleging that the high command does not practice democracy.

He said he has sent his resignation letter to Sonia, with a copy marked to Rahul Gandhi.

He further alleged that the party in Kerala has been reduced to two groups, headed by Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala and that the KPCC is only a coordination committee of the two factions.

Anyone not belonging to either group cannot survive in the party, he added, citing the experience of former state party chief V M Sudheeran, who could not survive as he did not have any group of his own.

Chacko was a favourite of Sonia Gandhi and had headed the Joint Parliamentary Committee which inquired into the 2G spectrum scandal and had given a clean chit to the UPA government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh.

But with new power centres emerging and exerting their influence on the high command, particularly the likes of general secretary K C Venugopal, Chacko saw his role being progressively diminished.

An assignment as in charge of Delhi Congress only produced disastrous results, since he was constantly clashing with Shiela Dixit.

He was also blamed for failure to hammer an alliance with Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP in the Delhi assembly elections. The fiasco prompted Chacko to shift his focus to his home state, but the strong factionalism within the state Congress did not allow him any room to manoeuvre, driving him to frustration.

Chacko claims that although there was a 40-member election committee for Kerala, it had no role in the selection of candidates. All nominees were either Oommen Chandy or Ramesh Chennithala loyalists. Neither merit nor winnability was considered as a criterion.

He claimed that it was impossible for anyone to remain a Congressman in Kerala, one could only be a group loyalist.

Chacko was once a confidant of NCP leader Sharad Pawar.

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