In what is being seen as an indication of the shape of things to come before the 2019 general election, the Kerala Congress(M) of tainted former Minister KM Mani, formerly a major constituent of the Congress-led Opposition UDF, wrested power in the Kottayam District Panchayat on Wednesday by allying with the CPI(M) in order to defeat the Congress.
A stunned State Congress leadership reacted furiously calling Mani a betrayer. It decided to abandon all discussions meant for bringing the KC(M) back to the UDF. However, Mani, whose party is presently sitting as an independent bloc in the Assembly, said that the KC(M) had not held any talks with the CPI(M) and that there was no plan to ally with it in the State level.
The CPI(M)’s Kottayam district leadership said the new alliance in the Kottayam District Panchayat was strictly a local matter while the CPI, second biggest constituent of the CPI(M)-led ruling lDF, said there was no need to bring in new partners to the front. Also, there are sharp differences within the KC(M) over the development in the Kottayam civic body.
However, observers feel that the CPI(M)-KC(M) alliance in Kottayam can well be the beginning of a new friendship which may ultimately see the entry of Mani’s party to the lDF before the general elections of 2019. They say that the CPI(M), with the new friendship, may be hoping to improve its position in central Kerala, where the KC(M) has immense influence.
Mani, hunted by the lDF, especially the CPI(M), over the charge that he had taken bribe from bar owners, had resigned as Finance minister in the then UDF government in November, 2015. The KC(M), a party that draws its strength from the Catholic Church, left the UDF of which it was part for over three decades last August. The party has six members in the State Assembly.
Despite the protests the CPI(M) had held against Mani across the State over the bar bribery scandal, a section in the party has always been in favour of roping in the KC(M) to the left fold. However, this section has not been able so far to make overt attempts in this direction openly because of the opposition from within the CPI(M) itself and the CPI.
“The CPI(M) may now make more explicit efforts to woo the KC(M) considering the differences it has with the CPI over a host of issues,” said a senior editor of a pro-left newspaper. He said the Kottayam development could prove to be a setback for the alleged efforts of the BJP to woo the KC(M) in view of the 2019 elections.
In the election held on Wednesday in the Kottayam District Panchayat, Zakharias Kuthiraveli of the KC(M) became president by defeating Sunny Pambady of the Congress with the support of the CPI(M). The election was necessitated by the resignation of Congress’s Joshi Philip as president after he was elected as the Congress’s district president in Kottayam.
Zakharias won the election by bagging 12 votes whereas Sunny could get only eight votes. In the 22-member council, the Congress has eight members, the KC(M) and CPI(M) six each and the CPI and Janapaksham one member each. While the CPI abstained from voting, the Janapaksham member cast an invalid vote.
As per an understanding reached at on April 3, the Congress and the KC(M) together were to elect Congress’s Sunny Pambady as the district panchayat president in Kottayam. While the Congress accused KC(M) of violating this pact, Mani said that this was a natural reaction by the members of his party who were “hurt by the continuous violation of the pact by the Congress”.
Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, State Congress’s acting president MM Hassan and others termed the KC(M)’s move in Kottayam as an act of betrayal and opportunism. “Mani has committed an act of extreme political treachery,” said Chandy while Chennithala said, “There will never be a compromise with Mani.”