Congress appoints young leaders as district heads

Thiruvananthapuram, December: In what could be a pointer to the future, the Congress high command on Thursday night effected a "generation change" with the 14 new district committee presidents being all below the age of 50.

Also woman leader Bindu Krishnan, who had earlier contested both the Lok Sabha and assembly elections unsuccessfully, was nominated to head the Kollam DCC - the first such appointment.

The other appointees are Neyattinkara Sanal - Thiruvananthapuram, Babu George- Pathanamthitta, M.Liju - Alappuzha, Ibrahimkutty Kalar - Idukki, Joshy Phillip - Kottayam, P.J.Vinod - Ernakulam, T.N.Prathapan - Thrissur, V.K.Sreekandan - Palakad, V.V.Prakash - Malappuram, T.Siddiq - Kozhikode, Sateeshan Pacheni - Kannur, I.C.Balakrishnan - Wayanad and Hakkim Kunnel- Kasargode.

The list has been on the discussion board at the state level and at the high command level for the past four months.

Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Kodikunnil Suresh said the list has been discussed at all levels and is expected to bring an impetus to the party.

Popular political analyst A.Jayasankar said this is a welcome change and totally unexpected because this is not the way Congress party generally selects DCC chiefs.

Incidentally one feature of the list is that it contains close aides of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala and state Congress president V.M. Sudheeran.