Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 27 : The state Congress party which faced a drubbing in the recent local body elections is reworking its strategies to capture power in the ensuing assembly elections of 2021.
The Congress, and the United Democratic Front (UDF) which it heads faced a major erosion in vote share in the local body polls.
Of the six corporations in the state, the UDF could get only Kannur corporation.The Left seized power in Ernakulam while it retained Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Thrissur and Kozhikode.
In a further embarrassment, the Congress party and its front could garner only 10 seats in Thiruvananthapuram corporation out of 100 seats.In several panchayats and municipalities across the state it trailed even the BJP.
The party leadership has chalked out immediate plans to rework its strategies and the AICC general secretary in charge of the state Tariq Anwar is in the state for three days from Saturday to discuss and fine tune its strategies.
UDF convenor and former state Congress president M.M.Hassan told IANS that the party has studied in detail the reasons behind the drubbing and has planned a systematic approach to capture power in the 2021 assembly elections.“The Congress and UDF are down but not out.It should be noted that we had won 19 out of 20 seats in the 2019 general elections and that was a political election and the elections to the local body polls are mostly fought on personal lines.However a defeat is a defeat and we admit defeat but we have reworked ourselves and will package in a different line to get victory”.Hassan told IANS.
The state Congress it is learnt will be replacing seven of the 14 District Congress Committee presidents, whose performance was below-average thus leading to the party losing its grip in several traditional areas.
KPCC general secretary Manacaud Suresh who hails from Thiruvananthapuram said: “The party needs a major surgery ,the flab which the party leadership has accumulated over the years has to be pruned.We need a lean and fit party and the three-day meetings to be held with AICC general secretary Tariq Anwar also participating will finalise the party strategies for the ensuing assembly elections”.
He further said “In the next assembly elections, merit must be the criteria for the party candidates and fielding candidates with impeccable personality will help the party to oust the anti-people and highly corrupt Left front government”.
It is learnt that the former Chief minister Oomen Chandy, who was reluctant to contest elections, will be in the fray from Puthupally, and the big three of the party – Oomen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala and Mullappally Ramachandran – will be taking joint responsibility for running the show.
KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran will be conducting one to one meeting with all the social groups of the state including the Muslim clergy, various Christian denominations, the SNDP, the NSS, the Viswakarma Sabha, various Dalit groups and other marginal groups to sort out differences of opinion which some groups have raised.
The party has already availed the services of a leading psephology group to conduct an impartial audit on its strengths and weaknesses across the state.
PCC president Mullappally Ramachandran while speaking to IANS said: “Local body polls are never the benchmark to gauge in which direction the wind blows.I do accept that we lost but we will rectify and the issues are being studied in detail and will address the core issues faced by the party.I am sure that the Congress and UDF will repeat its performance of 2019 elections
.
