K M Mani adamant, UDF meet postponed
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Congress (M) chairman K.M. Mani is in no mood to relent to Congress leadership’s cajoling to attend the UDF meeting. Mr Mani has given another blow to the Congress by announcing that he would attend the next UDF meeting only after his party's camp meeting at Charalkunnu August 6-7. This has forced the UDF leaders to postpone the next sitting to Aug 10 from Aug 4.
Mr Mani had not attended the meeting held on Monday citing personal inconvenience much to the shock of Congress leadership as he had alleged that Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala was the brain behind the bar scam implicating him. Later when Muslim League leader P. K. Kunhalikutty and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy spoke to him over the phone, he agreed to attend the UDF protest in front of the Secretariat on Aug 4.
But now the UDF leadership has been forced to postpone both those programmes much to his happiness. “I will not be attending the UDF sit-in and also the allies' meet on Aug 4. Nobody has boycotted the UDF. If possible, I will participate in the next meet. Nothing can be said now. There are no major problems in the front,” said Mr Mani. “We (rest of the allies in the UDF) will not be surprised if he decides soon to sit as a separate bloc in the next session of the Assembly,” said a senior UDF leader.
A majority of the UDF leaders feel Mr Mani and company will leave UDF citing irreconcilable differences with the Congress. But at the same time they also feel that Mr Chennithala is of the opinion that “if he wants to leave, he can”. “It’s just a matter of few months before Mr Mani joins NDA. But it all applies to KC (M) leaders like P. J. Joseph and Mons Joseph who are preventing him from ditching the UDF,” said another UDF leader.