The KPCC announced the expulsion of MLA Rahul Mamkootathil within minutes of the Thiruvananthapuram District Sessions Court rejecting his bail plea in the rape case on Thursday. After the plea was dismissed, it didn't take too long for the party to issue the press note saying that Rahul has been expelled from the primary membership of the party. They had kept it ready.

While senior Congress leaders clearly hinted on Wednesday what was coming, the party waited for the court's order on Thursday to deliver the fatal blow. This delay was necessitated to convince a section of party workers who still sympathised with Mamkootathil, in spite of the grave nature of the allegations. The beleaguered MLA still commanded good support within the party from his days of being a Youth Congress leader. By waiting for the court order to boot him out, Congress believes it could silence even the faintest whisper of protest within the cadre.

The party's claim of gaining a moral high ground by expelling an MLA for sexual misconduct was slightly marred by this delay.

Opposition leader V D Satheesan, however, called it a technicality. "We were convinced of the nature of the complaint. In the first case, the Chief Minister initiated police action. When a complaint came to the KPCC president, he forwarded it to the police. The decision to expel him was made on Wednesday. We just made the announcement today," said Satheesan, adding that he is proud of his party. 

Satheesan has not budged in his stand since serious allegations of rape and a police case hounded Rahul. He has distanced himself from public functions and party programmes whenever Rahul was around. In Thiruvananthapuram, he even wanted Rahul to leave a protest venue before he turned up to attend the event.

According to Congress, the latest decision was a culmination of the rightful ways in which the party had acted earlier. It suspended Rahul from membership, stripped him of Youth Congress leadership and acted aloof for the past few months. 

The party has also turned the tables on the CPM. "There are so many complaints gathering dust in the AKG centre. The CPM, which finds time to advise us, can take a leaf out of what we did and forward those complaints to the police," said Satheesan. UDF convenor Adoor Prakash also took a dig at the CPM. "We could have formed a commission and conducted an investigation. But we didn't do that. The decision to expel Rahul was made with the consent of the AICC and the High Command," he said. 

Prakash hurled the innuendo at the CPM's practice of constituting internal party commissions to handle allegations of sexual misconduct against leaders. In 2018, then Shoranur MLA  P K Sasi was suspended from the CPM's primary membership after he had faced sexual harassment charges from a woman DYFI leader. The ouster happened after a two-member commission comprising A  K Balan and P K Sreemathy was constituted to probe the complaint.

A Congress leader said that, unlike previous sexual abuse cases involving MLAs M Vincent and Eldhose Kunnappilly, senior leaders personally understood the predatory nature of the complaints against Rahul Mamkootathil. Even when a case was registered against Rahul in August, the investigation didn't make much headway, and Rahul began appearing again in public events. This didn't go down well with the majority of the leaders, who strongly disapproved of his misconduct.

Political observers, however, said that the Congress needn't have waited for the court order as the allegations were really serious and almost all the leaders had concurred on the need to expel him. "What if the court had granted him bail, the decision would have been otherwise?" a party observer said. 

The Congress leadership was on the same page to take the extreme step. Senior women Congress leaders and legislators like Uma Thomas, Bindu Krishna and Jebi Mather MP, as well as women leaders of the Youth Congress, also openly expressed their displeasure against Mamkootathil. Shanimol Usman, on Thursday, voiced her protest against Rahul in a function attended by the KPCC president, Sunny Joseph.

The move also reflects the boldness and mature thinking of the new Congress leadership. Even ahead of the Nilambur bypoll, V D Satheesan had snubbed attempts by P V Anvar to warm up to the Congress after he had walked out of the LDF. He took a risk, but eventually it paid off. Satheesan was also displeased after Rahul had paid a visit to Anvar. 

With the decision to expel Rahul, the Congress believes it can pose some hard questions to the CPM for protecting MLA and film actor Mukesh, who is an accused in a sexual abuse case. This will also help the party deflect the public attention back to the Sabarimala gold scam and other developmental issues during the local body poll campaign. 

The party has also abandoned Rahul completely. "It's best if he resigns," said Sunny Joseph. Satheesan was even colder. "It doesn't matter now, if he resigns or not".