KOCHI:The bond which started on a first Friday, a day considered as an auspicious one among the believers is still continuing even after half a century. This unusual bond is between Finance Minister K M Mani, who holds many a record in his political career, and his Assembly constituency constituency Pala as he completed 50 years as its representative on Thursday. He had became the longest serving member of the Assembly on July 13, 2010, surpassing the record of K R. Gouri (15544 days).
However he could not become a member of the assembly in 1965. It was dissolved as no single party could form a ministry commanding majority support. His tryst with the Kerala Assembly starts on March 3, 1967 when he took oath office as an MLA.
It was the debut election for the winner, Kerala Congress as well as the constituency one among 133 Assembly constituencies carved out after a fresh delimitation of constituencies. Mani, among 22 others from his party, was declared elected from Pala on March 5, 1965. Out of the 50,153 votes polled, Mani could garner 51.51 per cent and defeated his immediate rival V T Thomas with a margin of 9,585 votes while the Congress candidate finished third. The state went to polls again in 1967 and he defeated the same rival with a lesser margin, 2,711 votes.
The longest serving MLA in the country is the 88-yearold Ganpatrao Deshmukh from Sangola in Solapur district, Maharashtra. In the last elections, the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) politician, who has represented the seat for a record 54 years, defeated Shahajibapu Patil of Shiv Sena by 25,224 votes. He was first elected an MLA in 1962 and since then, except for the 1972 and 1995 polls, has won 10 elections. In 2012, Deshmukh completed 50 years in the Assembly and was felicitated by the House and the government.
Though both Mani and Deshmukh are in their 11th term in Assembly, Mani is in the record books as the Minister who served for the longest period, while the veteran from Maharashtra spent most of his career in the opposition benches, and was only minister twice.