Kerala on Wednesday witnessed the announcement of formation of yet another political party, Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, ahead of the crucial Assembly elections to be held in May. The new party has been formed by a group of rebels who had quit the Kerala Congress (M), a major constituent of the Congress-led ruling UDF, in the past one week. This is the second political party to be formed in Kerala in less than 100 days.
Former MP Francis George, who declared the formation of the new party, has been elected as its chairman at a convention of the KC(M) rebels at Kochi. George, son of Kerala Congress’s founder leader KM George, said that the new party would work for the rights of the State’s farmers.
Francis George, general secretary Antony Raju and many others had left the KC(M) on March 3 protesting against the alleged “autocratic, family rule” being pursued by party chairman KM Mani, who had resigned as Finance minister in November over the charge of taking `1-crore bribe from bar owners. Since then, several prominent leaders had quit the KC(M).
The KC(M) rebels who launched the new party belonged to the group in that party led by Water Resources Minister PJ Joseph, which was part of the CPI(M)-led lDF till 2010. Joseph left the lDF that year and merged his party, Kerala Congress (J) with the KC(M) thus becoming part of the UDF. “The merger was a huge mistake,” said Francis George on Wednesday.
The new party will work with the lDF and contest the May 16 Assembly election as part of it. Seat-sharing talks with front leader CPI(M) and other parties of the left will begin soon. Though “family rule” and Mani’s alleged plan to ally with the BJP are projected as what provoked the rebels, it is said that the split was actually caused by disputes over seat allocation. With the birth of the Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, the number of Kerala Congress parties in Kerala has gone up to five. Two of these parties are with the UDF while three are with the left though they are not partners in the front formally. The Kerala Congress, a movement mainly of settler farmers, is often described as a party that splits as it grows and grows as it splits.
The convention in Kochi also elected an ad-hoc committee for electing the other office-bearers. The party will hold its State convention in Kottayam on March 16. “Presently, the farm sector of Kerala, especially the rubber sector, is in deep trouble due to unprecedented price fall but nobody is doing anything. We can’t sit idle in such a situation,” said a leader of the new party.
Francis George’s outfit is the second political party to come into being in Kerala in less than the past 100 days.
Vellappally Natesan, general secretary of the SNDP Yogam, outfit of Hindu lower caste Ezhavas, had launched the Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), on December 5.
The BDJS has decided to become part of the BJP-led NDA.
Prior to his election as chairman of the new party, Francis George made a scathing attack against the governments in the Centre and State. “Neither the There were allegations that the CPI(M) had encouraged the split in the KC(M) with the objective of bringing a prominent group from it to its side so that it could make inroads into the cash-crop farmers’ belt in east-central Kerala and win the confidence of the Catholic Church over which leaders like Francis George are said to have immense influence.