In a big blow to the Congress ahead of Assembly polls in Kerala, senior leader and former MP P.C. Chacko resigned from the party in New Delhi on Wednesday. He was miffed over ticket distribution in his home state Kerala which is going to polls on April 6. He alleged that seats were divided based on and blamed the central leadership for failing to lead the party effectively.
He said he sent his resignation letter to party interim chief Sonia Gandhi saying that "it had become difficult to continue in Congress".
"There is no democracy left in Congress. Candidate list has not been discussed with the state Congress committee. I have sent my resignation to Sonia Gandhi," Chacko said here.
He blamed the leadership for continuing to be a mute spectator. "Being a Congress leader in Kerala is very difficult. If you belong to some group in Congress then only you can survive in the party as leadership in the Congress is not much active."
He referred to two predominant groups in the Congress party in Kerala, the party, one led by former CM Oommen Chandy and the other leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, whom he blamed for the step he had to take.
"I have been deliberating about this in my mind for many days. There is no Congress in Kerala. There is one Congress (I) and one Congress (A). It is a coordination committee of two parties. Groupism is the biggest bane of Congress party in Kerala," said Chacko.
He hoped his resignation will work as an eye-opener for the party.
Chacko further accused the Central leadership of doing nothing to end the groupism in Kerala’s Congress party. He added that he was against the signature campaign, but agreed to the points raised by G 23 leaders in their letter. He said it was unfortunate that Congress was not able to find a leader in the last one and a half years since the Lok Sabha election defeat.
“I cannot agree with a signature campaign. But what they said is right. The weaknesses of Congress is hampering the fight against the BJP. The Congress is getting weakened and it is not because of any other party..it is because of its own doing,” he said.
Chacko, a four-time Lok Sabha MP has been in politics for over a decade now. He began his political career as an activist of the Congress’s student wing Kerala Students Union (KSU) and was elected a general secretary of the KSU in 1968, then became the president of the Youth Congress in Kerala in 1970. He was first elected to the Kerala Assembly in 1980 and became a minister in charge of Industries.
In 1991, he first became an MP and was appointed as the Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee which examined matters relating to Allocation and Pricing of Telecom Licences and Spectrum.