Congress Kerala unit sees unrest within party

KOCHI: Rebel trouble, opposition from its own allies and group war are some of the problems that the Congress in the state is facing as the deadline for filing the nomination paper for the local body election ends on Wednesday.

In at least eight panchayats in Malappuram, the Congress party candidates are locked in an electoral battle with IUML members.

A Congress-IUML meeting could not resolve the matter. After a meeting with the IUML leaders, chief minister Oommen Chandy said that the problem is not "serious". According to him, out of the 1,000-odd panchayats, the Congress is facing problems only in a few places.

In the past one week, the Congress leaders had to deal with an agitation of the Youth Congress workers as they staged protest march in different parts of the state for side-lining them when the candidates list was finalised.

In Thrissur, Youth Congress workers took out their khadi shirts and walked through the city streets as a mark of their protest.

The Youth Congress vice-president CR Mahesh submitted his resignation for not giving tickets to the youngsters.

However, the Congress leadership intervened at the last minute and instructed the district committees to offer some seats to youngsters and forced Mahesh to withdraw his resignation. "By staging the protest march we were able to attract the attention of the leadership to our demands", Mahesh told ET.

In Thiruvananthapuram, the Congress is facing rebel problems in around 7 seats. In Kozikkode, the party is facing rebel trouble in at least a dozen seats. The party is yet to sort out its problems in Pathanamthitta. The group war within the party has affected candidate selection in Kollam.

The Congress party hopes to find a solution to its troubles before the October 17, which is the last day for the withdrawal of the nomination.

At the same time, the CPM, the main rival of Congress in Kerala, has already achieved success in some of the seats as the party candidates are unopposed in at least 10 wards of the Anthur Municipality.