Kerala Congress (Mani) faction, a political outfit of the Catholic community in Kerala, severed its 33-year-old alliance with the Indian National Congress on Wednesday and moved over to the Left Democratic Front led by the CPI(M).
Jose K Mani, son of late K M Mani, one of the founders of the Kerala Congress, announced his decision to join the CPI(M) camp after a meeting of the high power committee of the faction held at Kottayam. Mani Jr also announced his resignation from the membership of the Rajya Sabha, which he had won in 2018 as a UDF nominee.
This is being seen as the build up to the 2021 assembly election as the CPI(M) badly wants to retain and return to power. Presently, the party is under siege because of scams and corruption charges ranging from Gold smuggling, dates import and LIFE Mission pay off.
It is reported that the CPI(M) leadership has assured the KC(M) that the latter would be allocated 12 to 15 seats in the upcoming assembly election expected to be held in March -April 2021. The CPI(M) leadership hope that it would be able to retain power in the next assembly election in company of the KC(M) faction, which has considerable influence among the Catholic community in districts like Kottayam, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Idukki.
“It is a welcome move by the Kerala Congress. The LDF and the Kerala Congress would be in a win-win situation,” said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan about the development. Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Oommen Chandi described Jose Mani’s move as immature and foolish.
Meanwhile, the NCP, a constituent of the LDF expressed its displeasure over the CPI(M) move to accommodate Jose Mani. Mani C Kappen, who had defeated the KC(M) faction leader in the by-poll at Pala necessitated by the demise of Mani said that he was in talks with the Congress-led UDF.
The CPI(M) had tried its best to derail the presentation of the Kerala Budget by the then Finance Minister K M Mani in the House in February 2016. The assembly witnessed nasty scenes as the CPI(M) MLAs destroyed furniture and computer terminals in the House in their bid to prevent the then finance minister from presenting the budget accusing him of having taken money from liquor mafia to lift the ban on sale of liquor. A criminal case against six CPI(M) MLAs have been filed in the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court at Thiruvananthapuram for destruction of public property.
The Mani led Kerala Congress had a brief honeymoon with the CPI(M) in 1980 during the tenure of E K Nayanar as Chief Minister. But Mani switched his loyalty to the Congress-led UDF in 1982 which resulted in the fall of Nayanar ministry. Nayanar in all his interviews and speeches used to ridicule Mani as a person who could not be trusted.
The KC(M) moving to the LDF is likely to see a realignment of various parties in the State in the build up to the assembly election.