Thiruvananthapuram: Congress leader G Rathikumar announced his resignation from the party on Wednesday.
The development comes a day after another senior leader A P Anil Kumar parted ways with the party and joined rival CPM.
Rathikumar held the post of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) general secretary for the past two-and-a-half years.
Anil Kumar, meanwhile, had hinted that more leaders from the Congress is expected to exit the party.
It had put the party, looking to revamp itself after the recent Assembly polls debacle, on the defensive.
However, Opposition leader V D Satheesan made light of the recent resignations on Wednesday.
"The Congress party is bigger than any individual. It will not be affected by anyone's exit," remarked Satheesan, the Paravur legislator, after learning that few of its senior leaders, including Anil Kumar, had left the party to join the CPM fold.
"Even if I leave, someone smarter than me will take my place. Nothing has happened to the party even after veteran leader K Karunakaran's exit," Satheesan said referring to the upheavals in the party in the first decade of this millennium.
Leaders changing party is nothing new in Kerala, Satheesan observed.
"It is natural for the CPM to accept those who have left the Congress. Those who left the CPM have also been welcomed here," he said.
Late last month A V Gopinath, another KPCC office-bearer, had announced his departure from the party, upset over the appointment of another leader as the head of the Palakkad District Congress Committee.
KPCC President K Sudhakaran and Satheesan are now at the forefront of overhauling the party demoralised by its reverses in the 2020 local body polls and the recent assembly polls. Though not all of their proposals were readily accepted, the duo has convinced many that, after the recent Assembly election debacle, such changes are necessary for the party to rebound.
