Delay in Appointing KPCC President Affects Congress Functioning in Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The delay in appointing a new KPCC president has affected the functioning of the Congress in districts as the appointment of District Congress Committee presidents too remains affected. As many as five DCC presidents are now MLAs, adding legislative responsibilities to their organisational roles. DCC chiefs N Shaktan (Thiruvananthapuram), Mohammed Shiyas (Ernakulam), V S Joy (Malappuram), Praveenkumar (Kozhikode) and Nattakom Suresh (Kottayam) were elected to the assembly. “Four of them are first-time MLAs, and these constituencies were wrested from LDF. They will have to be present in the constituency and focus on development projects to retain the seats. Handling the DCC and constituency will affect their performance,” said a senior Congress leader. With the party gearing up for restructuring and addressing issues related to inner-party coordination, DCCs play a crucial role in strengthening it at the grassroots and maintaining coordination between the government, party leadership and local workers. “Grassroots workers should be aware of the government’s projects and initiatives. They are the ones who defend the government and the party in public. There should be a strong DCC and efficient district-level leaders to coordinate and strengthen the party mechanism. Just because the Congress-led UDF is in power, we cannot compromise on the functioning of the party,” said an insider, adding that new DCC chiefs were appointed five years ago and the leadership may consider change of guard in all 14 districts. However, discussions on the appointments are expected to begin only after a new KPCC president is appointed. Though several names have been discussed for the post after Sunny Joseph expressed willingness to step down, the leadership is yet to finalise its choice.