Kottayam/ kollam/ kochi: Kottayam DCC president Joshy Philip has alleged an ‘unholy nexus’ between Kerala Congress (M) chairman K.M. Mani and the CPM to prevent the election of Congress candidate Sunny Pampady as president of the district panchayat on Wednesday. “Mr Mani will not be allowed to reduce the gravity of the breach of trust and return to the UDF fold,” he told reporters here on Thursday.
Mr Mani had said that it was a ‘regional adjustment,’ but the party had violated the agreement with the Congress. Eight members of the Congress and six of the KC (M) had agreed on April 4 to elect the Congress candidate as president. However, the KC(M) leadership violated that agreement, he said.
He added that Mr Mani was trying to blame the Kottayam DCC for the betrayal. The elections held at the Vazhapilly panchayat on Thursday had proved that the party members had rejected the stand of Mr Mani and his son Jose K. Mani.
Eight KC(M) members supported Congress candidate Sheela Thomas who was elected as the vice-president of the panchayat. “Mani and Jose K Mani, who fear the investigating agencies at the centre and the state, are conducting discussions with the NDA and the CPM in the state. Mani and his associates misguided us and I had resigned as the district panchayat president,” Mr Philip said. The father and son had arrived at an understanding with the CPM even before they concluded a pact with the Congress party, he alleged.
Bar bribery was instrumental in UDF’s debacle, says Shibu Baby John
RSP leader Shibu Baby John has lashed out at Kerala Congress (M) chairman K.M. Mani saying that it was the bar bribery scam involving Mani and not the Saritha case that led to the UDF’s poll debacle in the Assembly elections. “Either Mani or the CPM has lied on the bar bribery scam and they should reveal the truth before joining hands,” he said here on Thursday.
Fringe left ridicules CPM for Mani tie-up
The carefully calibrated move by the Kerala Congress (Mani) and the CPM for a tactical alliance at the Kottayam district panchayat has become the latest subject to ridicule CPM by a slew of the fringe left groups and individuals in the social media. Activists have also posted the photographs CPM legislators creating a ruckus in the state assembly over Mani presenting the budget in the wake of the allegations in bar bribery and other scandals. The first salvo fired by Najmal Babu, a public intellectual known as a critical outsider within the CPM, reveals the trend. In a facebook post he said “Mani, keep the currency-counting machine at home and come. Already there are many black marks”.
Prof PJ James, a member of the CPI-ML (Red Star) termed the alliance representing the complete “degeneration of the CPM”. Describing KM Mani as the perfect symbol of “corporate-mafia politics”, James said he also represents the anti-communist alliance formed in 1957 against the first communist government. Human Rights activist Jaison Cooper in a post contrasted Pinarayi Vijayan’s preposterous claim of US administration trying to sabotage the LDF government in the state and the CPM leadership cozying up to Kerala Congress, allegedly claiming the legacy of ‘Liberation Struggle’ that led to the ouster of the first communist government in the state.
