Thomas K Thomas, the MLA from Kuttanad, has been appointed the president of the NCP (Sharad Pawar) Kerala unit . An announcement to this effect was made by party’s National President Sharad Pawar on Friday.

P M Suresh Babu and P K Rajan Master have been elected working presidents of the party’s state unit.

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Thomas was chosen for the president’s post after P C Chacko’s resignation. It is learned that an internal rift over replacing AK Saseendran with Thomas K Thomas in the Pinarayi Vijyan cabinet led to Chacko’s resignation.

In the wake of an open tussle between two party MLAs, Forest Minister AK Saseendran and Kuttanad MLA Thomas, the official leadership led by Chacko decided to replace A K Saseendran with Thomas K Thomas.

Though P C Chacko was able to convince Sharad Pawar, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has not agreed to the suggestion to replace A K Saseendran with Thomas. He took a firm stance in favour of Saseendran’s ministership.

The CPI-M was also not keen on replacing Saseendran, as Thomas has been facing several allegations. Following this, Chacko suggested that the NCP (Sarad Pawar) should recall the party’s minister from the cabinet. This did not go down well with Saseendran’s followers. They campaigned for the removal of Chacko as state president of NCP.

It has been reported that Chacko was forced to quit the president’s post after Saseendran and Thomas resolved their issues and Thomas K Thomas joined with the Saseendran faction.