Veteran CPM leader M M Mani and the party will never forget the public meeting on May 25 night at Manakkad when his fiery speech eclipsed his political future and the party’s credibility. The speech proved too costly for the party at a time when it was battling the demon of the T P Chandrashekharan murder case and facing the byelection in Neyyattinkara. Mani had revealed that the party in the 1980s drew up a list of political rivals to be eliminated and executed some on the hit list, including Youth Congress leader Anchery Baby.
The revelations led to the police lodging cases against Mani, former CITU leader O G Madanan and party sympathiser Kainakary Kuttan, accusing them of conspiring to murder Baby on November 13, 1982. Since Mani belongs to the Pinarayi faction in the CPM, the state leadership went soft on him. However, Mani’s outbursts, which drew widespread media focus both from within and outside the country, forced the central leadership to chide the state unit for not initiating action against him. Following this, he was suspended from the state committee and stripped of the district secretary post.
A one-time die-hard supporter of former Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan, Mani ditched the octogenarian to join hands with Pinarayi after falling out with VS over the Munnar mission to evict illegal occupants.
Armed with the permission granted from a lower court, the special investigation team (SIT) finally arrested Mani on November 21. This was followed by the arrests of O G Madanan and Kainakary Kuttan. The three, who were interrogated in police remand, failed in their attempts to get bail. Various courts had rejected Mani’s bail pleas three times. At present, a bail plea of Mani is pending before the Kerala High Court.
A petition filed by Mani challenging the SIT registering FIR in the case that was tried over two decades ago is pending before the Supreme Court. Holding a record of becoming district secretary in the state for nine times, the veteran politician has served the party for over four and half decades.