A solution to the crisis dogging Kerala’s Congress-led ruling UDF due to the demand of tainted Finance Minister and Kerala Congress (M) chairman KM Mani to remove his party’s vice-chairman PC George MlA as the Government Chief Whip may get delayed though the UDF leadership has agreed in principle to honour Mani’s demand on the condition that George should be allowed to continue in the front as a legislator of his own group.
Mani has already rejected this condition. He has warned the UDF that he would take some “hard decision” if his demand was not met but Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has asked him to wait tillApril 2. Sources in the UDF said that Mani would eventually have to agree to the formula.
The Chief Minister is on a trip to UAE and will be back only on April 2, the day the final phase of the lent starts. However, as the following days are Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, a final decision could not be expected before April 6. Senior UDF leaders said there was no harm if the issue was taken up only at the UDF meet scheduled to be held on April 9.
After a parliamentary party meeting of the KC(M) on Thursday, to which its only vice-chairman George was not invited, Mani had given a letter to Chandy informing him of the decision to remove George as Chief Whip. Mani’s argument is that it is his party’s right to decide who should adorn the position allotted to it by the UDF.
Mani and his loyalists had come to the decision to penalize George after his repeated statement - that the Finance Minister should have resigned the day he was accused of taking Rs 1 crore as bribe from the State’s bar owners - became unbearable. Mani also faces the charge of leaking out Budget proposals to interested business sectors for money.