A HIGH-VOLTAGE STREET THEATRE

OF the five assemblies going to polls in the next few weeks, the state where the Congress is perhaps pinning its tallest hope of forming a government is Kerala.

- RAJESH RAMACHANDRAN

The hope is fuelled by anti-incumbency against 10 years of Left Democratic Front rule and is based on Congress’s thumping Lok Sabha victory in 2024 and at the local body elections three months ago. Many Left citadels fell as the United Democratic Front swept corporations, municipalities and grama panchayats with a decisive edge of 5.4 percent in vote share over the LDF.

But this winning spark, instead of igniting a desire to propel the party in the upcoming polls, has singed it, with Congress leaders openly fighting over post-poll positions. The CPI(M), which leads the governing coalition, announced 81 of its 86 candidates on March 15, the very day the Election Commission of India unveiled the poll schedule. Whereas the Congress wasted five days squabbling over who should contest.

Former Pradesh Congress Committee president K Sudhakaran, former home minister Ramesh Chennithala, UDF convenor Adoor Prakash and others were actively politicking, queering the pitch for the Leader of Opposition, V D Satheesan, a frontrunner in the chief-ministerial race. K C Venugopal, national general secretary in charge of organisation, was not quick enough to organise his fellow Ma-lJayali Congressmen. It seems a faint smell of faraway success turned Congressmen delusional over trappings of power.