Thiruvananthapuram: Congress leaders piled heaps of complaints in front of AICC General Secretary Tariq Anwar, who arrived in the state for discussing election debacle, following which, he cancelled the all-leaders meeting and instead held one-on-one discussions.
Tariq discussed matters with KPCC General Secretary and its vice presidents separately. Most leaders blamed state leadership for local body election losses. DCCs are accountable for what happened, KPCC cannot be held responsible entirely for the defeat, shot back Mullappally Ramachandran during his time with the AICC secretary. Though there was no direct suggestion to remove Mullappally from his post, "A " group recommended Oomen Chandy as a more desirable head. Several leaders were frank in saying, the party cannot face Assembly elections in its current form. It is lack of coordination on part of state leadership that resulted in poll setback, said VD Satheesan.
TN Prathapan asked for changing DCC presidents though . most leaders felt time wasn’t on their side to experiment such drastic overhaul, with just a couple of months left for Assembly elections. They also opined that Mullappally’s removal will come to be interpreted as League having their way. All the same, most leaders agreed that lack of coordination and groupism culminated in the gross electoral debacle. Some complained on lack of adequate funds for election campaign.
The AICC General Secretary said, he would submit a report to the Congress president covering all discussions here. According to sources, with Muslim League, vehement on leadership change, Tariq has not entirely rule out removing Mullappally. The national-level delegation will hold discussions with coalition party leaders in coming days before complleting its report, The AICC will examine the document and spell its decisions on things intended for Congress here.
