The faction war in the Kerala Congress (M), a major constituent of the Congress-led ruling UDF, has reached a flashpoint with several senior leaders of one group in it holding talks with the leadership of the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF as part of their move to switch sides ahead of the crucial Assembly polls. The left leadership has assured the KC(M) rebels entry into the lDF.
What has forced KC(M) rebels Francis George, former MP, PC Joseph, former MlA, party general secretary Antony Raju and others - all belonging to the group led by Water Resources Minister and party working chairman PJ Joseph - to move towards the lDF is the refusal by scam-tainted party chairman KM Mani to allocate to the group its sitting Assembly seats.
“It is an undeniable fact that Mani is individually making efforts to turn this democratic party into his family-oriented organization,” said PC Joseph referring to the alleged bid by the 83-year-old party chairman, who resigned in November as Finance minister after being accused of taking bribe from bar owners, to make his young son Jose K Mani MP his successor.
Though PJ Joseph is averse to the idea of joining the lDF, which he had left in 2010 when he was a minister in its government after several decades of alliance to merge his party with Mani’s KC(M), his loyalists held preliminary discussions with leftist leaders including State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
The lDF leadership has assured the KC(M) functionaries that they can be accommodated in the Opposition coalition if they come out of the UDF severing all relationships with it and do it fast. Another condition put forward by the lDF leadership for giving them entry into the front is that they should openly reject the UDF politically.
“PJ Joseph’s relationship with Mani has collapsed totally but he may not go back to the lDF just because he does not want to be seen as an opportunist who switches sides whenever there are elections. But that does not prevent the others from taking that option,” said a senior leader of the Joseph group.
The development is certain to cause much worry to Mani as these leaders, particularly those like Francis George, are immensely popular among the party’s supporters. Also they are very close to the higher authorities of the Catholic Church, which is the main source of inspiration and strength for the Kerala Congress, a party mainly of Christian settler farmers.
These popular leaders’ move to leave the party and UDF has come at a time when the top clergy of the mighty Catholic Church in Idukki district, a KC(M) stronghold, is already in good relationship with the left after it extended support for the Church-sponsored settler farmers’ agitations over the Gadgil and Kasturirangan reports on Western Ghats conservation.
Though faction war had been raging for quite some time in the KC(M), a confederation of two parties, Kerala Congress (Mani) and Kerala Congress (Joseph), what caused its sudden intensification is Mani’s bid to allot only two seats to the Joseph group for the coming Assembly election while they had contested four seats in the 2011 State polls.
The KC(M) had contested 15 seats in the last Assembly election and won nine of them. However, this number came down to eight recently after the departure of PC George, party working chairman and former government chief whip following his persistent campaign against Mani. The KC(M) has already asked the UDF leadership for more seats in the coming election.