New KPCC chief soon; Anto Antony, Sunny Joseph favourites to take Sudhakaran’s place

New Delhi: The Congress high command has given a clear message to KPCC president K Sudhakaran that he would be immediately replaced by either Pathanamthitta MP Anto Antony or Peravoor MLA Sunny Joseph.

Sudhakaran was directly informed about the move by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi during a meeting held at Kharge’s house in New Delhi on Friday evening.

According to party leaders, the Congress leadership wants the party to face the upcoming Assembly byelection in Nilambur under a new state leadership. Meanwhile, the high command also considered Angamaly MLA Roji John for the KPCC chief’s post, but he did not make it to the final list.

On vacating the KPCC chief’s post, Sudhakaran is likely to be included in the Congress working committee as an invitee. However, his supporters are unhappy over the Congress leadership’s decision, and in order to avert a public controversy, the top leadership of the party is planning a smooth change of guard by placating Sudhakaran and taking him into confidence regarding every move in this regard. In an unusual gesture, Kharge personally escorted Sudhakaran to see him off.

At the same time, Sudhakaran on Saturday said that he was not aware of any move by the party high command to replace him as state president, but would readily accept any such decision.

"I met and held detailed discussions with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi a day ago about Kerala politics. There were no discussions about removing me. So, you will have to ask the high command if they are going to remove me. I will readily accept any such decision by them. I can only abide by it. I cannot question it," Sudhakaran said.

Similar reports about removing Sudhakaran from the KPCC chief post were there a few months back as well.

At that time, Congress Working Committee member Shashi Tharoor had strongly backed Sudhakaran’s continuation as KPCC chief, stating that the party secured significant electoral victories under his leadership.