KOTTAYAM: Senior Congress leader and former chief minister Oommen Chandy is facing trouble at his home turf Puthuppally after the Congress party workers as well as the members of the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church here alleged that the senior leader has deserted his close aide Philson Mathews in the race for the Kottayam DCC president.
Mathews, a known Chandy loyalist and the managing committee member of the Jacobite church, was the front runner for the post till Saturday morning.
However, the last-minute changes made in the Alappuzha and Idukki districts saw Mathews losing out, giving way to Nattakom Suresh, who was the nominee of senior Congress leader and MLA Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan.
Mathews, who hails from Puthuppally constituency from which Chandy had won all the 12 elections since 1970, has also been Chandy’s election manager in the last few elections.
The Jacobite Church forms a decisive vote bank in the constituency. The dispute between the Orthodox (Chandy belongs to this denomination) and the Jacobite and the support of the Jacobite to the LDF had resulted in the drastic reduction of the winning margin of Chandy in the last elections. Even when the solar scam allegations were at its peak in 2016, Chandy enjoyed the support of Puthuppally voters and won with a comfortable margin.
However, things have started taking a dip for Chandy since the 2021 elections with the resistance from the Jacobite group.
Meanwhile, the leaders of Jacobite Church expressed their protest at being ignored for the posts of the presidents of the Congress party in any of the 14 districts. However, they were not ready to talk openly about this as they said the Church is going through a crisis following the Supreme Court judgment on the dispute between the Jacobite and Orthodox church.
“Philson was purposely removed after being considered till the last minute,” said a senior Church official, who did not want to reveal his identity. “The Congress party has intentionally rejected the members of the Church from the post. Among the 12 lakh faithfuls belonging to the Jacobite Church, around seven lakh have Congress leaning. Jacobite Church was a fixed deposit for the Congress party. The silence of the Congress party leaders during our crisis has invited the protest of our members and this has reflected in the recent elections,” he said.
Meanwhile, majority of Congress workers in the constituency have dismissed the claims made by Chandy that no effective discussions were made with him regarding the selection of the DCC presidents. He had said that attempts were made to feel that such talks were held. He also said that he has informed the Congress high command about his objection to this. However, KPCC president K Sudhakaran and opposition leader V D Satheesan refuted Chandy’s allegation and said that talks were held with him before finalizing the list.
His son Chandy Oommen, who has high political ambitions, is expected to land with a key post in the KPCC soon. However, following the rejection of Mathews to the DCC post and the displeasure of the Jacobite Church, Chandy Oommen will have a task cut out for contesting and winning from Puthuppally in the future.
Meanwhile, Mathews came up with an FB post on Sunday saying that he has no complaints in losing out the post and said that he will remain as a loyal Congress worker. He also said that he consider it as a great achievement to head the election campaign of Oommen Chandy.
