Squabble over ministership: NCP state president P.C. Chacko resigns
Kochi: Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) state president P.C. Chacko resigned from his post. The resignation letter was handed over to national president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday evening, according to reports. As of now, Chacko serves as the national working president. Whether he will continue in this position will be decided by Pawar.
The squabble within the party regarding the ministerial position of A.K. Saseendran is believed to be the reason behind the resignation. The Saseendran faction had abstained from the state executive meeting held on February 6, announcing that they would not accept Chacko's leadership. They also communicated that they would not attend the meeting scheduled for February 18.
Supporters of Saseendran started a campaign demanding Chacko's removal from the position of NCP state president. Reports indicated that MLA from Kuttanad, Thomas K. Thomas, had extended his support to this cause. Loyal leaders supporting the minister and MLA were assigned responsibilities in various districts to gather signatures for the campaign.
The signature collection was completed in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Kottayam, and Kozhikode. It was decided that the complaint signed by party leaders and workers would be sent to Sharad Pawar and working president Supriya Sule through national secretary Satish Thonnakkal.
It was rumored that upon hearing about the signature campaign against him, Chacko initiated secret moves to make state vice president P.M. Suresh Babu or general secretary in charge of organizational affairs, K.R. Rajan, the new president, should he step down.
After not receiving the ministerial position, Thomas K. Thomas took a firm stand for the state president's position. He also expressed dissatisfaction that Chacko had not made enough efforts to secure a ministerial post for him. Saseendran turned against P.C. Chacko after Chacko took a stand to remove the minister from his position.