Thiruvananthapuram: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi may be facing flak at the national level with regard to his party’s performance, but in Kerala he is believed to have played a key role in deciding that younger leaders should be heading district Congress committees (DCCs) in the state.

Accordingly, younger DCC presidents have been announced this week for all 14 districts in the state. The new DCC presidents have an average age below 50.

The Congress unit in Kerala has been run by a handful of leaders for nearly half a century, including veterans like former chief ministers A.K. Antony and Oommen Chandy, Vayalar Ravi, and incumbent state Congress president V.M. Sudheeran.

The entrenched senior leaders have also carved out their own factions within the party, which the younger ones felt was perennially blocking their progression to the higher echelons within the party establishment.

Though the party high command can take some pride in shaking up the DCC dispensation in the state, the choice of new district chiefs has toed the line of the existing factions within the party’s state unit.

Political observers feel that in the announcement of the new DCC presidents, the faction owing allegiance to opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has been favoured the most, with 8 of the 14 DCC chiefs’ posts going to that group.

Leaders who are known to be backing former chief minister Oommen Chandy have been given charge of five districts.

An odd man out in the list is T.N. Prathapan, who is seen to be close to KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran. Prathapan, aged 56, is also the oldest among the 14 DCC chiefs announced.

There is one woman leader among the 14 DCC chiefs, Bindu Krishna, who had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha and assembly elections. She will now head the Kollam DCC.

The announcement of the new DCC chiefs may have disappointed Congressmen who were awaiting a faction-free hierarchy for the Congress in Kerala, but they will have the consolation of seeing younger leaders taking over the party mantle.

Political analysts point out that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has been one person who has been constantly voicing the need to induct youth into leadership positions in the party in Kerala, and that the list of DCC chiefs reflects that thinking.