Two days after forcing the Congress-led UDF Government to instruct the Vigilance to drop its plan to question him, his wife and son in the infamous bar bribery case, Kerala’s tainted Finance Minister KM Mani on Tuesday forced the Congress to postpone the front’s central zone campaign by eight days.
Almost all UDF constituents had disagreed with Mani’s demand for putting off the campaign -four zonal campaigns were scheduled to take place simultaneously from May 19 to 24 — but the front ultimately succumbed to the pressure exerted by his party, the Kerala Congress (M), whose support is crucial for the continuance of coalition Government surviving on a thin majority.
The central zone campaign would now start on May 27 while campaigns in the other zones would take place as per the original schedule, UDF convener PP Thankachan said after a front meeting on Tuesday. The UDF had planned the four campaigns in a desperate bid to refurbish its image which had taken a beating due to the various scams the Government has been facing.
Though Mani’s demand was to postpone the entire campaign, the Congress somehow managed to limit the postponement to that in the central zone. The central zone campaign is to be inaugurated by Mani and his party is in charge of leading it. Mani had not attendedTuesday’s UDF meeting.
The justification cited by the KC(M) officially for its demand for putting off the campaign was Mani’s personal inconvenience and the party programmes that were currently on but rumours are rife that the Finance Minister was firm that the campaign should not take place before the Vigilance probe into the bar bribery case was over and his name was cleared.
The Government had, under the pressure mounted by Mani on Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, the other day instructed the Vigilance to drop its plan to question Mani (once again), his wife Kuttiyamma and son Jose K Mani in the bar bribery case. Mani faces the charge that he had demanded Rs5 crore as bribe from the State’s bar owners and had taken Rs1 crore of it.