The Kerala Congress (M), second major constituent of Kerala’s Congress-led Opposition UDF, has stepped up its attacks against the front leader as part of its protest over the alleged trapping of its chairman KM Mani in the infamous bar bribery scandal. The KC(M) had the other day decided to stay away from the UDF for the time being as a prelude to its possible exit from the coalition.
In an article titled “Then PT Chacko, Now KM Mani”, published in the latest issue of Prathichchaya (Image), the party’s official organ, the KC(M) alleged that the successors of those who had trapped the popular leader, late PT Chacko, in a sex scandal had now trapped Mani in the bar bribery case.
Chacko had resigned as Home and Revenue Minister in February, 1964 following the sex scandal. Similarly, Mani was forced to resign as Finance and law Minister after detractors caught him in the trap of the allegation that he had taken Rs 1 crore as bribe from bar owners, said the article. As the article has appeared just when Congress leaders Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala and PK Kunhalikutty, leader of Muslim league, second-biggest party in the UDF, have launched efforts to pacify Mani proves that the KC(M), whose support is of crucial importance for the front in the present situation, is not prepared for a patch-up with the Congress.
Chacko had to resign just when there was a feeling that he might become CM and Mani also had to resign in a similar situation, the article said. The bribery charge against Mani had followed reports that the CPI(M)-led lDF might induct KC(M) and have Mani as CM toppling the previous UDF Government headed by Chandy.
The article has once again posed the KC(M)’s question to the Congress why the noose was tightened only around Mani in the bar bribery scandal while there were more serious allegations against then Congress Ministers like K Babu. If Mani was charged with taking Rs 1 crore, the charge against Babu was that he had taken Rs 10 crore from bar owners.
Another article published recently in Prathichchaya had alleged that former Home Minister Chennithala, leader of the ‘I’ group of the Congress that opposes the ‘A’ group of Chandy, had conspired to trap Mani in the bribery scandal. It had also said that Babu and Adoor Prakash, another former Minister of the Congress, had participated in the conspiracy.
According to observers, it will be suicidal for the Congress and the UDF if they cannot stop Mani from leaving the front and joining the lDF or BJP-led NDA as the coalition is going through one of the worst phases in its history due to the devastation it suffered in the May 16 Assembly polls in which it got only 47 seats in the 140-member House.
Meanwhile, differences of opinion have started cropping up in the Congress over the approach its top leadership has been adopting towards
Mani. Senior Congress leader and former Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan indicated on Wednesday that it was improper on the part of the former UDF regime to initiate a case against Mani over the bribery scandal.
Thiruvanchoor, known as a staunch loyalist of Chandy and an advocate of his ‘A’ group, said that the Congress should be prepared to hold sincere discussions with Mani while Chandy himself claimed what the former Government led by him had done was to exonerate Mani in the case after holding scientific investigations.
Meanwhile, State BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan said that it was now up to the KC(M) to take the initiative for talks on alliance with his party. He termed as “imaginary” the reports about Jose K Mani MP, son of KM Mani, getting a ministerial position in the NDA Government in the Centre if the KC(M) decided to join hands with the BJP.