Congress reshuffle aftershocks: Ramesh Chennithala upset

New Delhi: Veteran Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala is learned to be upset with the party leadership for being appointed as an in-charge and not a general secretary given his organisational experience.

Chennithala, a stalwart of Kerala politics, has been given the charge of Maharashtra.

Barring senior leader Mukul Wasnik, he is senior and much more experienced than all the 12 general secretaries of the party. A five-term legislator and a four-time Member of Parliament (MP), Chennithala, 67, had served as the Home Minister in Kerala and leader of the Opposition in the state assembly.

Apart from holding the record of being the youngest minister in Kerala at the age of 28, he headed the Kerala Students’ Union (KSU) in 1980, the National Students Union of India (NSUI) in 1982 and the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) in 1990.

In 2001, Chennithala was appointed a secretary in the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) and given independent charge of seven states. He was elected to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, in 2004.

The veteran leader returned to state politics in 2005 and became the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief.

It is said that Chennithala’s junior colleague from Kerala, KC Venugopal, played a key role in his fresh appointment.

In Kerala politics, Venugopal was much junior to Chennithala. In fact, they belonged to the Congress faction led by K Karunakaran. This faction owed its allegiance to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and it was known as the “I” group. The rival faction, the Congress “A” was formed by AK Antony after he split the Congress following differences with Indira Gandhi.

Though he rejoined and merged his outfit with the Congress in 1982, leaders owing allegiance to him came to be known as members of the “A” group or Antony faction.

While Chennithala left the Karunakaran faction after some time, Venugopal stayed put for some years before shifting his loyalties to the rival group.

He came to the limelight in the Congress many years later after the then-party president Rahul Gandhi named him an office bearer and eventually the general secretary of the organisation. Venugopal now runs the show in the grand old party.