After managing to get both her party's official nominees elected in the April 14 Rajya Sabha election in Kerala, the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, is now grappling with the problem of dissidence in the state unit.
A rebel candidate propped up by the K Karunakaran faction of the Kerala Congress came close to ruining the Congress party on April 14. While the official Congress candidates -- Vayalar Ravi and Thennala Balakrishna Pillai -- secured 38 and 36 votes, respectively, the rebel candidate, Kodoth Govindan Nair, bagged 26, a respectable count by any standard.
When Nair filed his nomination for the RS election, 20 Congress MLAs had signed in his favour. It would require only 21 MLAs to split the Congress legislature party in Kerala without attracting the provisions of the anti-defection law.
No wonder then, Sonia seems to be in no hurry to punish Karunakaran. Evere since the results were declared on Monday evening, she has contacted a large cross-section of leaders in Kerala.
Sources said that before moving against the rebels, Sonia would like to gauge the level of discontent against Chief Minister A K Antony and also the kind of support Karunakaran enjoys in the state unit.
With four states -- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Chhattisgarh -- scheduled to elect new governments later this year, and the general election less than two years away, the last thing Sonia wants is another problem state on her hands.
"The thinking within the party is that any action against Karunakaran may add fuel to the fire...the dust raised by the rebellion has not yet settled," a senior Congress leader said.
He, however, said the high command would have to carefully weigh the risk involved in moving against Karunakaran against encouraging indiscipline in the party.
Also, he said, since the voting was by secret ballot, it would be impossible to pin-point who voted against the official nominees.
