Kerala’s tainted Finance and law Minister KM Mani, accused of taking Rs1 crore as bribe from liquor barons, resigned from the Cabinet on Tuesday after day-long political dramas in the wake of a High Court remark that he should decide on continuing as Minister as per his conscience and pressure for his resignation from within the Congress-led ruling UDF and the Opposition parties.
“In order to express my respect for rule of law as law Minister, I am resigning from my Minister’s position. I have talked with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on this and have sent my letter of resignation to him … I and my party, the Kerala Congress (M), will continue to extend our wholehearted support to the UDF,” Mani said announcing his decision to quit.
To a question whether he had resigned under pressure, he said, “I am resigning my post voluntarily.” In a dramatic development that came after eight hours of deliberations in his party, Kerala Congress (M), his loyalist and Government Chief Whip Thomas Unnyadan also resigned along with him surprising the entire State as to why he should resign.
Mani’s decision to resign came after the UDF and the Chief Minister, who had defended him for a year in the bar bribery scandal, reportedly served a 24-hour ultimatum on him. leader after leader of the UDF, especially the Congress party, had been demanding Mani’s resignation since Monday noon when the High Court made the remark against him.
Informing that the letters of resignation of Mani and Unnyadan had been received, the Chief Minister said, “Mani Sir has resigned by upholding the highest democratic values in the context of the Judiciary’s remarks. Since the start of the bar bribery case, the UDF has never believed that Mani Sir was guilty. We still hold that view.”
In a sense, it has been an irony of destiny for Mani, who had completed 50 years of legislative career earlier this year and had been minister for a quarter century. He was the first minister in the entire history of Kerala to resign over charges of bribery. An investigation by the State Vigilance had allegedly found evidences to support the bribery charge against him.
It took over nine hours for the KC(M) to come to the decision that Mani would resign. Even then, Mani tried to make his party colleague PJ Joseph resign as Irrigation Minister with him to create a feeling that the entire KC(M) was solidly behind him. Joseph’s refusal to toe Mani’s line created a deep crisis in the party, which may even lead to a split, observers feel.
Mani’s resignation came also after the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF declared that it would launch an intense agitation on Wednesday if he did not resign on Tuesday. The plan was to observe relay Satyagraha at the gates of the State Secretariat. On Tuesday, Yuva Morcha and DYFI, the CPI(M)’s youth outfit, took out protest marches to the residence of the Chief Minister.
Even when it was obvious that he was out of options on Tuesday morning, Mani tried to avoid resignation by examining the possibility of challenging the HC order. His next attempt was to force the UDF to drop its demand for his resignation by threatening that if he had to go, all the eight KC(M) MlAs would resign, endangering the existence of the Government.
He then allegedly made an effort to make Joseph and Chief Whip Thomas Unnyadan, his ardent loyalist, vacate their positions. Though Unnyadan agreed to Mani’s proposal, Joseph on his own and after consultations with his trusted friends in the party, categorically rejected it on the ground that he need not resign in the name of the bribery charge.
According to KC(M) sources, it took more than five long hours for the steering committee to see Mani agreeing to the suggestion for his resignation. Even after this, Mani repeated his demand for Joseph’s resignation in order to create a feeling that the KC(M) was solidly behind him. However, Joseph rejected this categorically.