Wayanad DCC chief Appachan resigns amid mounting crisis in Congress Party

Wayanad: In a dramatic development reflecting deeper fissures in the state Congress, Wayanad District Congress Committee (DCC) president N D Appachan has tendered his resignation, citing a lack of enthusiasm to continue and leaving the decision to the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC). “If they accept it, I will go. If they want me to continue, let them say so,” he told reporters.

Appachan’s exit comes against a backdrop of mounting distress in the party’s Kerala fabric, factional fights, broken assurances, and even suicides have cast a harsh spotlight on its internal functioning. Congress in Kerala is confronting what many see as one of its gravest moral and political crises, as party workers and their families have been pushed to the brink.

A particularly tragic case involves Padmaja, the daughter -in -law of former Wayanad DCC treasurer N M Vijayan, who on September 13 slit her wrist in despair, leaving a note addressed to “Killer Congress.” Her father- in -law and his younger son had died by suicide in December 2024, under debts reportedly amassed after alleged bribes were collected by party leaders for promised cooperative bank jobs. KPCC initially pledged to assume their liability, but sources say it later retracted, offering only partial relief. Padmaja, already under extreme strain, her husband bedridden, accused local leaders of reneging on written assurances and neglecting to meet medical expenses.

Compounding the crisis, Jose Nelledam, a panchayat member in Mullankolly, died by suicide shortly before, after releasing a video detailing sustained harassment, humiliation, and internal betrayal by party colleagues.His suicide letter reportedly implicated intra-party forces, but media coverage largely buried such details in inside pages, omitting his accusations in favour of softer portrayals.

In an acknowledgement that few dared to make publicly, Appachan affirmed that it was “forces within Congress” fueling the turbulence in Wayanad. The timing of his resignation, mere days after MP Priyanka Gandhi’s constituency visit,casts it as not merely a personal decision but a symptom of deeper institutional rot.