Soon after dusk set in on 30 September, Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram became a theatre of violent clashes reminiscent of the 1990s.
What started as an Indian Youth Congress (IYC) march against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar descended into chaos when Students’ Federation of India (SFI) activists allegedly disrupted the protest by hurling beer bottles. There had been intermittent clashes between the Congress and the BJP workers after IYC activists waved black flags at Union Home Minister Amit Shah, before SFI joined the issue.
So, when United Democratic Front (UDF) Convener Adoor Prakash announced a press conference at the Indira Bhavan, the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) headquarters, on 1 October, he was expected to address these issues. Instead, the presser soon turned into a tirade against Chief Minister VD Satheesan’s style of functioning and lack of consultations, exposing deep internal rifts within the ruling coalition.
The immediate trigger for Prakash’s outburst was media reports on the allocation of two additional cabinet ranks, one each to allies All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML). Former minister MK Muneer was accorded the position of the Chairman of the Administrative Reforms Commission while AIFB general secretary G Devarajan was named Kerala’s special representative in Delhi.
Prakash said no consultations were held before these decisions, leaving him tongue-tied while fielding questions from the press. He alleged that he was also not kept in the loop when it came to the naming of cultural bodies before that. Prakash also declared that the chief minister must come clean on the chartered flight controversy.
First public rebellion
This marked the first public rebellion against Satheesan from the Congress ranks after his assumption as chief minister in May, when he edged out KC Venugopal, Congress general secretary in-charge (Organisation). While Prakash’s contentions had merit, the timing and the way it was aired from the KPCC headquarters did not go unnoticed.
The development caught Satheesan at his most vulnerable, arriving just a week after he found himself defensively justifying a privately sponsored chartered flight while stubbornly withholding the benefactor’s identity. This crisis was clubbed with the fresh electoral sting: the UDF lost three seats in the bypolls held across 38 local bodies, where the Left outperformed it less than five months after getting trounced in the Assembly elections.
Prakash’s outburst was immediately sought to be connected to Venugopal. However, the Alappuzha MP was measured in his response, even if he contended that these issues would be taken up in the party. Prakash himself is no small fry, given he is the Ezhava face of the party in Central Travancore, a former state minister and MP from Attingal.
Prakash’s rebellion also came close on the heels of the BJP raking up the issue of a sixth Cabinet rank for the IUML. This harks back to the ‘fifth minister controversy’ in 2012, when the Malabar-based party wrested an additional cabinet berth citing its numbers in the state Assembly. That controversy played out publicly, resulting in massive communal polarisation, giving a fillip to the BJP in the state.
The IUML’s public backing of Satheesan as CM has been raked up, with a section in the Congress wondering if the sixth Cabinet portfolio is a ‘quid pro quo’ on that account. A senior Congress leader told me on the condition of anonymity that at the Cabinet formation stage, there was no case for granting a fifth ministry to the IUML this time as it held only a third of the seats won by the Congress.
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Lack of checks and balances
Ever since Satheesan assumed the chief minister’s chair, he has virtually had a free run, with the incumbent KPCC chief Sunny Joseph reduced to his cabinet colleague.
Venugopal’s loss of face, after the high-stakes bid to become CM, has left him with no elbow room to meddle. This has also led to the sidelining of Deepa Dasmunsi, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of Kerala, after she threw in her lot with Venugopal.
This has resulted in a lack of checks and balances on Satheesan, who has shown signs of autocratic functioning lately. The consultations are left to the state Cabinet.
There have been murmurs of dissent within the state unit. Many veterans are bidding to occupy the chairmanship of the 16 state boards and corporations, while others are biding their time to strike at the opportune time. Many of them are wary of Satheesan’s popularity among the public, whose short memory propels them to compare the incumbent with predecessor Pinarayi Vijayan rather than Oommen Chandy.
Congress veterans point out how due process has been given the short shrift by Satheesan in his short tenure.
Even in the heyday of K Karunakaran and Chandy, they argue, these leaders followed due process even when they took decisions unilaterally. For instance, it was the prerogative of Prakash to announce the conferring of cabinet ranks to UDF colleagues MK Muneer and G Devarajan as the front convener. In the absence of consultations, Satheesan was duly required to write a letter to the convener as a formality.
The allocation of cabinet ranks to these positions — created by the previous Left regime to accommodate veteran VS Achuthanandan and turncoat KV Thomas respectively — was criticised heavily by the Congress and Satheesan in particular back then. Sources close to Prakash said that taking a U-turn from that position and extending that precedent called for wider consultations, terming it a “policy decision” in that respect.
In such an eventuality, veteran VM Sudheeran was among the frontrunners to take charge of the Administrative Reforms Commission while PJ Kurian was among the probables to become the state’s representative from the Congress ranks.
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Team UDF to Satheesan’s way
Satheesan’s detractors point out how he did not intimate Deepa Dasmunsi of the last KPCC state executive, and how only a solitary UDF meeting has been held in the last four months, on 30 July. The KPCC has been rendered dysfunctional, with chief Sunny Joseph saddled with the power ministry under Satheesan.
Two of the three working presidents — AP Anil Kumar and PC Vishnunath — are also part of the Cabinet. M Liju, who served as state general secretary with office charge, is also a minister. So is OJ Janeesh, the state Youth Congress chief. Many district Congress chiefs have been elected MLAs, and the state government has virtually come to replace the party at all levels, leaving the organisation in the lurch.
As Leader of Opposition (LoP), Satheesan’s constant refrain to questions on who can challenge Vijayan was the term “Team UDF”. Back then he swore by collective decision-making, with the AICC constantly monitoring the state. However, Satheesan has sought to emasculate the party and concentrate decision-making on himself after coming to power.
Congress needs to immediately elect a new KPCC chief to offer a counterweight to Satheesan. Venugopal is still licking his wounds after his failed bid to become CM, leaving the question of who replaces Joseph in limbo. Satheesan has backed veteran Kodikunnil Suresh, who enjoys the stamp of approval of AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Meanwhile, Venugopal would back someone from his camp such as Mathew Kuzhalnadan, or Shafi Parambil, the other working president. Joseph Vazhakkan is Ramesh Chennithala’s pick. Community equations favour a Christian face in Vazhakkan or Kuzhalnadan, who lost a chance to be part of the cabinet courtesy of the additional ministry to IUML, while Satheesan isn’t too keen on the latter.
The CM’s confidants see a conspiracy behind Prakash’s outburst, alluding to Venugopal’s involvement. They point out how state Mahila Congress president Jebi Mather, a loyalist of Venugopal, jumped to Prakash’s defence, while nobody publicly defended Satheesan beyond his coterie.
Meanwhile, the CM has been running around inaugurating cafes and gymnasiums, all in the name of being ‘investment-friendly’. Satheesan gave the Wednesday Cabinet briefing a miss last week, ostensibly citing his busy schedule, running away from questions of transparency on the chartered flight imbroglio. The question is, for how long?
Anand Kochukudy is a senior journalist based in Kerala. He tweets @TheKochukudy. Views are personal.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)