Kochi: The upset election results from Pala not only exposed the structural weakness of Kerala Congress (Mani) which K.M. Mani led for about five decades as an essential player of the state’s political stage but also that of the present day leadership of the United Democratic Front (UDF), of which the KC(M) is a part.
A consummate politician, Mani had the political knack to explain away crises and the political acumen to keep afloat even in turbulent waters. He engineered the first split in the Kerala Congress in 1976 which was followed by a series of them. Today, there are close to a dozen Kerala Congresses around. Mani was nonchalant about them all, dismissing with a one-liner: our party splits when it grows, and grows when it splits.
Mani was right, in a sense. The splinter groups thrived in the mainstream rival fronts of Kerala politics for long. The UDF which came to power in 2011 had three splinter groups and 11 MLAs; they had four ministerial berths, the same number as that of the Muslim League which had 20 MLAs. And when the NDA made some inroads in the state, one can find two factions of Kerala congress in that front. The LDF has its share, too.
But the Pala result has the potential to upset them all as it presents an unprecedented crisis.
Kerala Congress factions had managed to ensure the victory of their candidates in good number despite the splits; but in Pala, it ensured the defeat of its own candidate though there is no split. And this is the big change from the past.
The UDF has chosen to place the entire blame for the Pala result at the door of the KC(M) factions led by party working chairman P.J. Joseph and Jose K. Mani, the son of K.M Mani, pointing at their internecine fights. And leading the tirade is the Congress which, curiously, took the campaign management on its shoulders and managed the entire show. Once the election result was declared, the Congress leaders lost no time to put on the victim’s garb, and the KC(M) is now left with carrying the baby.
A senior Congress leader told this reporter after the polling was over that the Kerala Congress was undermining itself in Pala. “I told Mr Jose K. Mani that politics is also about flexibility; adamant stance does not deliver. But he has shown no signs of learning. Mani sir managed to run the show as he was a master in that art.”
But little does the Congress realise that the Kerala Congress fights were made use of by the party in the past for the benefit of the Congress and the UDF. And K. Karunakaran, the craftiest of them all, had always ensured that the regional party ‘splits when it grows’ but also saw to it that that the UDF remained a beneficiary. He never allowed the quarrelling factions to undermine each other’s electoral prospects, lest the front lose.
The Kerala Congress factions have sizeable following in Kottayam, Idukki and parts of Ernakulam, and can swing the results in at least 20 constituencies in favour of the UDF. Karunakaran knew it well and acted on it, but the present UDF leadership watched it from the sidelines in Pala and everybody ended up a loser: the KC (M) factions, the Congress and the UDF. And that too, even without a split. Something that the UDF can ill afford.
