Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 10 (IANS): With the Assembly poll results in five states on Thursday giving nothing for the Congress to cheer about as it lost Punjab, while failing to make headway in the other four, it does not also portend well for the party's faction-ridden Kerala unit.

In the Kerala unit, ever since the 2021 Assembly poll reversal, it was the party high command, especially senior leader Rahul Gandhi, along with his now close aide K.C. Venugopal, calling the shots, and this had ruffled seasoned veterans like Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala.

The high command, perhaps for the first time, decided to ignore veterans and brought in K. Sudhakaran as the new state chief and V.D. Satheesan as Leader of Opposition and since then, affairs in the party have not been smooth.

The first hurdle to cross in Kerala in the wake of the near washout in the current round of Assembly polls is that the party will have to clear a nominee for the one Rajya Sabha seat which it can win out of the three to which polls, if required, will be held on March 31.

"That could be a problem because there are quite a good number of senior leaders hoping against hope and are looking forward to the lone seat. In the bargain, the high command will be able to please just one leader and those who are left out will certainly be displeased. Another issue which is on the cards is the revamp of the district level office bearers and here too, with factional feuds also in the air, it could lead to washing dirty linen in public and a free for all," a political commentator, who did not want to be identified, said.