ThiruvanananthapuramSeptember 25, 2025 03:46 PM IST
First published on: Sep 25, 2025 at 03:43 PM IST
Days after Lok Sabha Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi visited Wayanad, represented by Priyanka Gandhi in the Lower House of Parliament, the party’s district president has resigned from the post.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph told the media on Thursday that Wayanad District Congress Committee (DCC) president N D Appachan has voluntarily submitted his resignation, and the letter has been handed over to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) for action.
Appachan, a former legislator, however, indicated the parting was anything but amicable. “KPCC president knows everything. I have nothing to say. Let them speak out. I had expressed my intention to quit,” he said.
Party sources said the reshuffle of KPCC and DCCs in Kerala had been pending for a while as leaders could not reach a consensus on the list. However, the Wayanad DCC president is learnt to have been shown the door unceremoniously because of the controversies that coincided with – and overshadowed – Priyanka’s one-week-long tour to Wayanad, before Rahul and Sonia joined her.
Priyanka’s visit was marred by the suicide of a local Congress worker and the attempted suicide of a former district leader’s daughter-in-law. It was also missing the usual fanfare and teeming crowds as the party’s district leadership was not privy to her daily programme schedule. Appachan had expressed his displeasure over the DCC being kept in the dark about her visit, which was reportedly fixed by her staff.
On September 12, a day after Priyanka began the visit, Padmaja, the daughter-in-law of former DCC treasurer N M Vijayan, attempted suicide. Vijayan and his son Jijesh had, last year, ended their life in connection with an alleged cash-for-job scam at a party-controlled cooperative bank in 2019.
Padmaja attempted suicide after publicly criticising the Congress for failing to provide financial support to her family.
On September 11, when Priyanka reached Wayanad, local party leader and Mullankolly village panchayat member Jose Nelladam, 57, allegedly died by suicide. His death came just days after another local Congress leader’s arrest and subsequent release laid bare the issue of factionalism in the party’s Wayanad unit.
K Thankachan, 57, was arrested and spent 17 days in judicial custody after explosives and a cache of illegal liquor were seized, allegedly from his possession. However, he got a reprieve after the police found that he had been framed in the case.
Emerging from jail, Thankachan alleged that Appachan and others, including Nelledam, were behind falsely implicating him in the case. Incidentally, Appachan and the party legislator from Sulthan Bathery (Wayanad) have been arraigned as the accused in the suicide of former treasurer Vijayan last December.