As Oommen Chandy refuses to budge on party candidates list, Congress seeks to buy peace

NEW DELHI: After Oommen Chandy strongly resisted PCC chief V M Sudheeran’s demand to drop from the candidate list five top party leaders, including three of the Chief Minister’s ministerial colleagues, the Congress high command on Sunday re-worked the plan to buy peace with dominant Chandy section, which has the tactical backing of Ramesh Chennitha faction too. Sudheeran was handpicked by Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi.

The list of party candidates to be formally released by Monday is widely expected to reflect Chandy’s wish list, including the five for whom he has fought for. The list is being delayed for one more day to show that the high command “is not acting under pressure” .

Chandy has argued before Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and AICC steering committee that dropping these five leaders merely on the basis of allegation will “amount to legitimising” the Left Front’s “politically motivated allegations”. He also said in that case he was ready to pull out of contest since he had been the main target of allegations.

The fact that Chandy had left Delhi for Kerala on a morning flight without waiting for the candidate list and had met his supporters on arrival with reports that many senior leaders will refuse to contest if Chandy’s demand was rejected added to the tension in AICC. Key UDF ally Muslim League too conveyed to AICC their support to Chandy. Sensing the overall mood, Sonia Gandhi reportedly backed Chandy’s argument to put premium on winnability. In Kerala, Chandy too tactically played on by saying “nobody can pressurise the high command” while Sudheeran demanded denial of tickers to K Babu, Adoor Prakash and Benny Behnan, saying their names figured in the solar and land scams.