Newly appointed District Congress Committee (DCC) president T. Siddique, who has been identified with the camp of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, is likely to face a daunting task of unifying party factions in Kozhikode.
Although the Congress high command, during the selection of DCC presidents, had ruled out the possibility of any leader owing allegiance to one of the troika — KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, and Mr. Chandy — becoming the new DCC president, it finally zeroed in on Mr. Siddique, a former State president of Youth Congress.
Party sources said Mr. Chandy drove a hard bargain in favour of his nominee even as there were other contenders — KPCC general secretaries N. Subramanian and A.P. Anil Kumar, KPCC secretary K. Praveen Kumar — for the post. He had been able to impress upon the leadership that the district required a more dynamic face to put the beleaguered party back on the rails.
A senior Congress functionary said the new president would require tremendous efforts to rebuild the party structure from its sagging state at the grass roots and hardcore factional politics in the upper and middle rungs. Possibly, he would have to refurbish his own image to take into confidence other leaders as well as meet the aspirations and feelings of the activists.
The new DCC presidents like elsewhere in the State, the Congress high command believes, will galvanise the rank and file of the party in the coming months.
Marred by failures
But, in Kozhikode, Mr. Siddique will have to take additional pains as the party in the district, under outgoing president K.C. Abu for 10 years, has been marred by failures. The Congress has had no representation from Kozhikode district in the State Assembly since 2005.
Coalition politics
A bigger challenge is the one posed by its coalition partner, Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which won two seats in the district. The Congress had contested five seats including Kunnamangalam after swapping the Balussery segment with the IUML. The seat-sharing process in the United Democratic Front (UDF) saw both the main constituents wrangle over the Kunnamangalam segment from where Mr. Siddique unsuccessfully contested.
Besides, the Congress party would have to recover lost ground with the Hindu community that had voted in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and restore confidence among the Muslim community that had temporarily inclined towards the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF). Further, it has to re-establish confidence among Christian settlers in the hill regions after Kerala Congress (M) severed ties with the UDF.
