As far as resignations go, they don’t get much more dramatic than this.
Kerala’s Mahila Congress Chief Lathika Subhash today protested outside the party office in Thiruvananthapuram by shaving her head. She sat in front of the office, and as cameras took pictures, got her head tonsured. Speaking to reporters after her shave, Lathika Subhash said that she had expected to be the party candidate from Ettumanur, but the party anointed Prince Lukose as its candidate. ‘I had expressed my desire to contest from Ettumanur as this is my birthplace and this is where I have grown up,’ she said.
She added that she was disappointed that the party has not kept its promise of reserving of 20% seats for women. She said that she wasn’t joining any other party, but was resigning from her post as Kerala Mahila Congress Chief. Crucially, Rahul Gandhi is the current MP from Wayanad in Kerala, and has been regularly visiting the state to campaign for the upcoming elections.
Many senior Congress leaders have publicly spoken out after the announcement of the party candidates for the upcoming round of Assembly elections. Just two days ago, the former President of the Tamil Nadu Mahila Congress (TMNC), ASP Jansi Rani, had lashed out at her party for denying her a ticket, and hinted that money power had become the only criterion to get a Congress ticket.
The Congress party in Kerala, in particular, has been struck by a series of resignations lately. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) secretary M.S. Viswanthan, Mahila Congress state secretary Sujaya Venugopal, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) general secretary P.K. Anil Kumar and KPCC member K.K. Viswanathan are some of the leaders who have resigned in recent weeks. But with a Congress leader now deciding to dramatically shave her head after not getting a ticket, ordinary Congress leaders seem to be trying everything they can to get the attention of the party leadership to help them with address their concerns. Whether anyone’s listening is a whole different question altogether.
