The claim raised for the Idukki Parliament seat by a section of the Kerala Congress (M), third biggest partner of Kerala’s ruling UDF, has become a huge irritant for front leader Congress, whose leader PT Thomas is currently representing the mountainous constituency which is already turbulent over a report on protection of the Western Ghats.
Though Congress leaders are repeatedly saying that the issue would not in any way affect the UDF’s poll prospects as they are capable of solving it amicably, they fear that the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF could try to cash in on the situation by wooing the disgruntled Kerala Congress (M) section. The problem for the Congress has been further complicated with the Catholic Church, highly influential among the settler farmers of Idukki, adopting a stand that it could not support Congress if Thomas was fielded as its candidate mainly because of his independent stand on the Kasturirangan committee report on protection of Western Ghats, which is seen as anti-farmer.
KC(M) working chairman PJ Joseph, also State Water Resources Minister, on Tuesday made it clear that the party would not compromise on the demand for the Idukki seat while several other leaders of the party threatened to enter into a “friendly contest” with the Congress in the constituency if that party was determined not to give up the seat. “We cannot compromise on our claim for the Idukki seat and also on the issue of the Kasturirangan committee report. However, discussions on the matter of the seat are going on,” he said. Joseph said the party (meaning his group) was not considering the option of joining the lDF which his erstwhile party, the Kerala Congress (J), had left four years back.
Joseph wants his trusted lieutenant Francis George to contest in Idukki in the coming election. Francis George, who had won the seat in 1999 and 2004 as lDF candidate, had lost it to PT Thomas by a margin of close to 75,000 votes in 2009. This adds justification for the Congress’s claim that Idukki is its sitting seat and therefore it cannot be surrendered to any other party.
At the same time, it cannot ignore the general feeling in the UDF of Idukki that Francis George, who also enjoys the blessings of the region’s top Catholic Church clergy, will be a better candidate there especially after the recent war of words between PT Thomas and Bishop Mar Mathew Anikkuzhikkattil.
The biggest worry for Joseph and his group in the Kerala Congress (M) is the fact that party chairman KM Mani, also State Finance Minister, is not showing the required interest in the issue. Mani, whose son Jose K Mani is contesting in the lone KC(M) seat, Kottayam, has confirmed that the party deserves two seats but is allegedly doing nothing to make it happen.
The biggest worry for the Congress is the ultimatum served on it by the Kerala Congress (M) and many farmers’ groups that it should ensure a freeze or total withdrawal of the Union Environment Ministry notification declaring 123 high range villages as ecologically sensitive as per the Kasturirangan committee recommendations before the notification for the election comes.
Kerala Congress (M) vice-chairman and UDF Government’s Chief Whip PC George, who the other day had threatened to resign if this was not done, said on Tuesday that even Mani could abdicate his Minister’s position on this issue. “The Kasturirangan committee report is far more important for us than even the Idukki seat,” George said.
The Kerala Congress (M), whose base is the settler farmer community of the high ranges, will have to take a decisive stand if the Congress fails to persuade the Centre to withdraw the Central notification on the Kasturirangan report. On Tuesday, Francis George said that there would be no compromise on the issue of the report even if the KC(M) was given the Idukki seat.