Thiruvananthapuram: Factional trends have resurfaced in the Congress unit of Kerala with the formation of new groups, even as the party hopes to wrest power from the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in assembly polls early next year.
Organisational polls in the state PCC, Youth Congress and other feeder outfits, now underway, also serve as catalyst for the re-emergence of these groups.
According to political observers, factionalism is nothing new to the party in Kerala, which had earlier witnessed a prolonged feud between groups loyal to senior leaders K
Karunakaran and AK Antony.
What makes the recent developments different is that the activities now taking place are not bi-polar. Karunakaran and Antony are also not party to any of these new formations.
The emergence of current round of groupism started with a meeting of activists belonging to the faction known in local political parlance as `I` group, originally loyal to Karunakaran, at Kochi last week.
It was followed by small group meetings to deliberate on the plans for the upcoming Youth Congress organisational polls.
However, KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala said the developments should not be given much importance as these were only a part of small issues connected with the Youth Congress poll.
"It is nothing serious. It cannot be termed as
resurfacing of factionalism as the party had seen often in the
past," Chennithala told a news agency.
PTI
