In an embarrassment to Kerala’s CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF, the Kerala Congress family, which had witnessed a major split last month, underwent another division on Saturday with former Minister V Surendran Pillai quitting the Kerala Congress (Scaria Thomas group), a minor partner of the left front, in protest against the denial of ticket to him to contest the May 16 Assembly election from the Thiruvananthapuram seat.
According to reports, Pillai may now switch camps by joining the Janata Dal (United), a constituent of the Congress-led UDF, and fighting as its candidate from the Nemom seat which that party has been allotted. Pillai had represented Thiruvananthapuram (West) between 2006 and 2011 and had lost the election in 2011 in the delimited Thiruvananthapuram seat.
“We have got our options open. We have before us secular, democratic national movements. If any such force is ready to accept us we will consider joining them,” Pillai said in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday giving credence to reports that he might join the JD(U) and switch camps to the UDF.
The former minister informed that he had resigned as the Kerala Congress group’s working chairman and that four general secretaries and six district secretaries of the party had also left it with him but party chairman Scaria Thomas rejected the claim. “I am not blaming Pillai. He could be feeling disappointed due to the loss of his seat,” Scaria Thomas said.
Pillai, who was minister for Ports and Youth Affairs in the 2006-2011 lDF government led by VS Achuthanandan, said that he had never expected “such a betrayal” – denial of the seat – from the lDF, adding that “the party” at its meeting on April 5 or 6 would take a decision on the seats in which it should contest.
The decision of the former minister to leave the party came after the lDF leadership handed over the Thiruvananthapuram seat to its new ally Janadhipathya Kerala Congress (KC-J), floated just last month by a group of rebels from the Kerala Congress (M) of former Finance minister KM Mani. KC-J leader Antony Raju will most likely be the lDF candidate in Thiruvananthapuram.
Pillai had a few days ago irked Scaria Thomas with his criticism against the left front over the allocation of the Kaduthuruthy seat to the party. According to Pillai, Kaduthuruthy was not a winnable seat as far as the left was concerned but Scaria Thomas had publicly objected to this criticism. The lDF had allotted three seats to the party in the 2011 election but it had won none.
Meanwhile, a similar development took place in the Congress-led UDF also when Johny Nelloor, chairman of the Kerala Congress (J) announced his plan to contest the Assembly election on his own, in protest against the Congress’s decision to take over the Angamaly seat from where he had contested the last State election.
“I am not ready anymore to speak even a word in support of those who had betrayed me and my party,” Nelloor said, adding that he did not consider any front as untouchable but the CPI(M) was quick to make it clear that it would not support him. It is said that Nelloor may contest he polls from Angamaly, Kothamangalam or Muvattupuzha.
Observers said that Nelloor’s personal standoff with the Congress party might snowball into a split in his own party as a major section in it led by Food and Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob, son of party founder TM Jacob, has not raised a voice of protest against the denial of the Angamaly seat to the party.
Nelloor claimed that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy himself had promised to allot the Angamaly seat to his party. The Kerala Congress (Jacob) which had got three seats to contest for the UDF in the 2011 election has got only one seat – Piravom – this time, he complained. Minister Anoop Jacob will be the party candidate in Piravom.