A video featuring two of Kerala’s prominent Congress leaders, engaged in a petty argument over who would speak first at a press conference, has triggered renewed conversations about the infighting and ego clashes among senior politicians of the party in Kerala. The conversation between Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan and Congress state unit chief K Sudhakaran was caught on a hot mic during a press meet at the Kottayam District Congress Committee (DCC) office on September 8, soon after party candidate Chandy Oommen won a resounding mandate in the Puthuppally bye-election.
In the video, Satheesan can be seen moving the set of microphones towards him as he gets seated for the press meet, when Sudhakaran intervenes to tell him that he is going to speak first. The leaders go on to argue over who would start the press meet, with Sudhakaran saying it’s only fair that he did because he was the president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC). A visibly miffed Satheesan eventually gives in and shifts the microphones towards Sudhakaran, who then proceeds to speak to the media. The two leaders seem unaware that the mics before them were already switched on.
Notably, Satheesan made little to no comments during the rest of the event, dismissing most questions directed at him by stating that the “president has already answered all necessary questions.” The video recently garnered widespread attention on social media and was soon picked up by television channels, with many criticising the Opposition leader for allegedly acting in an egotistical manner, even refusing to intervene and help out his fellow party members when a question was posed to them in the English language. The viral video has also led to the cyber trolling of the two leaders.
Satheesan on Wednesday, September 20, admitted that an argument had indeed broken out between him and Sudhakaran at the press conference, but claimed it was for widely different reasons than what the media was playing it out to be. He said the Congress chief had told him ahead of the press meet that he was going to give all the credit for Congress’s Puthuppally win to Satheesan. But as he did not want to take sole credit for the victory, he was discouraging Sudhakaran from taking the mic and making such a statement, Satheesan claimed. “[Sudhakaran] went on to make that statement anyway, as you must have seen,” he said, adding that he didn’t speak much further at the press meet because he had a sore throat.
Sudhakaran is yet to respond to the incident.