Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress party in Kerala is set for an overhaul in the wake of its resounding win in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. While in other states the party is in the throes of a crisis over its rout in the general elections, in Kerala a reshuffle has been necessitated by the victory of a few party candidates who hold key posts in the organisation and also as a finetuning ahead of a clutch of bypolls later this year.
Discussions are on in the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on whether to consider MPs and MLAs as office-bearers of the party during the restructuring of the state unit. The political affairs committee of the party would hold discussions on this during the meet on Sunday. The KPCC leadership is deliberating on whether to implement the 'one person, one role' proposal.
Both K Sudhakaran and Kodikunnil Suresh, who are KPCC working presidents, have become Lok Sabha MPs following their wins fom Kannur and Mavelikkara constituencies.
However, it is not known if they intend to relinquish their party posts even as the party is mulling over doubling the number of working presidents.
Senior leaders Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala, and KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran have decided against the formation of a jumbo committee. However, there is no final decision on replacing all the existing office-bearers. A decision would also be taken on the number of office-bearers.
The District Congress Committees (DCCs) are also set for revamp. Those who recently vacated the DCC president posts and do not have any other positions have requested the leadership to consider them for party posts, irrespective of group differences.
As V K Sreekandan of Palakkad and T N Prathap of Thrissur have been elected as Lok Sabha MPs, new DCC presidents would be picked for these districts. They have informed the KPCC leadership of their decision to relinquish the posts.
Benny Behanan, the Chalakudy MP, is likely to be replaced as the convener of the Congress-led political front United Democratic Front (UDF).
The leadership plans to finish the reshuffle process before the bypolls to a few legislative assembly seats.
