THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The appointment of the four new national general secretaries in the Youth Congress from the state has resulted in the escalation of infighting within the state Youth Congress.
The national leadership has appointed Binu Chulliyil, Jinshad Jinnas, Sreelal Sreedhar and VK Shibina as the new national general secretaries. However, leaving out the former KSU state president and Youth Congress state general secretary KM Abijith from the list has irked his loyalists, who allege foul play by state president Rahul Mamkootathil MLA and Shafi Parambil MP.
The new general secretaries were selected on the basis of their performance at a camp organised by the national leadership in Chhattisgarh months ago.
Though Binu, Sreelal and Shibina attended the camp, it is alleged that Jinshad had not attended the meeting. “According to the current practice, only those who had participated in the camp are considered for the appointment as national office bearers,” a Youth Congress state office bearer told TNIE on condition of anonymity. “However, in the appointment of Jinshand, this was violated,” he said.
The section that supports Abhijith alleges that though the former is also from A group, he was dropped because of his new affiliation with Kozhikode MP MK Raghavan.
“Raghavan is known for his closeness to Shashi Tharoor, who, on the other hand, is allegedly blacklisted by leaders across all groups,” a youth congress state committee member said.
Moreover, from the youth congress Kozhikode district leadership to Congress Kozhikode district leadership were opposed to Abhjith’s inclusion into the higher committee. It is also learned that Raghavan has already complained about dropping Abhijith from the list to the AICC leadership.
Of the four leaders selected, Sreelal, who is the state general secretary, is in the I group and close to Ramesh Chennithala. Binu and Shibina are close to KC Venugopal. Binu was the former state general secretary and Shibina is the serving general secretary. Meanwhile, Jinshad, who is also the state general secretary, is said to be very close to Rahul Mamkootathil and Shafi Parambil.
The section opposing state leadership has also alleged that Abhjith’s name was dropped from the list because of pressure from some state leaders.
However, Youth Congress state president Rahul Mamkootathil has told TNIE that in selecting the national office bearers, the state unit has no role to play.
“We are not consulted. However, I think that Abhijith was to be included in the list. We were informed that he would be included in the list. However, we don’t know what happened,” he said.
Rahul also dismissed the charge that Jinshad did not participate in the camp. “He attended the camp earlier, and he did not have to participate in this camp. Hence, he is also eligible to consider,” he added.
Meanwhile, in the district meetings held in 11 districts, in Idukki, Kozhikode and Wayanad, Rahul was severely criticised for his style of functioning. In these three districts, leaders, while criticising Rahul, said he was behaving like an autocrat in the organisation.
“He is also accused of not permitting the members to ask questions against him. There was also an allegation that after he became MLA, he had no time for organisational work. Rahul is also accused of being undemocratic,” multiple sources told TNIE.
However, dismissing the reports, Rahul said, “If I am an autocrat, why should I meet the leaders from the post of mandalam presidents from each assembly segment in each district. “No one has accused me of being an autocrat. This is the first time the state president is meeting the leaders at the mandalam level. And of course discussions were held in the meetings,” he added.