'Groupism' rearing its ugly head again in Congress in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Hardly a week after the Congress leadership in Kerala decided to gear-up for a remarkable performance in the 2025 local body polls and 2026 assembly polls, the party is witnessing differences among the top leaders coming out in the open.

The simmering differences between Kerala PCC president K Sudhakaran and Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, V D Satheesan, have come out in the open over a 'Mission 2025' programme finalised at the leadership meeting held at Wayanad last week.

Sudhakaran, as well as many office bearers of the Kerala PCC are learnt to be unhappy over Satheesan for reportedly issuing a circular based on the decisions at the Wayanad meeting.

Amidst such reports, Satheesan stayed away from two meetings, one convened by Sudhakaran, and the other by the Thiruvananthapuram district Congress committee on Friday, to formally report the decisions at the Wayanad meeting.

Sudhakaran told reporters that the differences within the party were quite natural and those would be sorted out through talks. But he maintained that there was 'no difference' with Satheesan.

Party insiders said that Sudhakaran and his supporters were fearing that Satheesan was trying to maintain his own dominance in the party's local affairs. There were also allegations that Satheesan's supporters were involved in publishing online media reports against Sudhakaran.

Sudhakaran, who is also an MP from Kannur, was recently aggrieved over the delay in giving him back the PCC president post, which was temporarily handed over to party senior leader, M M Hassan, during the Lok Sabha polls.

A recent instance of Sudhakaran making insulting remarks about Satheesan over the delay in arriving at a meeting had irked the latter too.

A large section in the party are upset over the simmering groupism and the party's internal affairs coming out in the open as it could badly affect the party's prospects in the coming elections, especially the 2026 assembly polls. They are expecting AICC's intervention as the matter has referred to the party high command.