Thiruvananthapuram | Kasaragod Congress MP Rajmohan Unnithan on Sunday urged the party high command to consider him for the KPCC president post, saying merit, experience and organisational work should be the criteria for the appointment.
In a letter to the Congress leadership, Unnithan said the prevailing practice of deciding the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief on the basis of caste and community equations should be discontinued and that leaders should be assessed on their qualifications, eligibility and service to the party.
He said he sent a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary K C Venugopal in this regard.
In the letter, he sought consideration of his political and organisational experience dating back to 1978.
Unnithan said the Congress in Kerala required a thorough organisational overhaul and that merely appointing a new KPCC president would not address the party's structural weaknesses.
"The party in Kerala needs to be rebuilt from top to bottom. Organisational weaknesses are many. Merely selecting a KPCC president will not solve the issues," he told reporters here.
Stating that caste and community-based considerations had never benefited the party, Unnithan said eligibility and experience should be the deciding factors in the appointment.
Claiming that he was among the party's senior-most leaders in the state, he said he had not been entrusted with major organisational responsibilities so far despite his long service in the Congress.
According to party sources, Unnithan is among several MPs who have expressed interest in the post, with Kodikunnil Suresh, Benny Behanan, Anto Antony and Shafi Parambil also said to be in the reckoning.
Meanwhile, flex boards demanding that MPs and MLAs should not be considered for the KPCC president's post have appeared at various places in the state, including outside the Kottayam District Congress Committee office.
The boards, put up in the name of Congress workers, advocate the principle of "one person, one post" and state that MPs and MLAs should focus on their respective constituencies, while the party requires a full-time KPCC president.
The development comes amid discussions within the party over the selection of a new state unit chief.
Meanwhile, incumbent KPCC president and Electricity Minister Sunny Joseph said on Sunday that he was prepared to step down from the post whenever the party leadership selects his successor.
