KOTTAYAM: Scotching political rumours regarding his possible entry into the BJP-NDA alliance, Kerala Congress(M) supremo K M Mani on Sunday made it clear that his party did not harbour any such intentions. However, the octogenarian leader did not address the issue of the KC(M) switching its allegiance to the CPM-led LDF, reports of which had been doing the rounds lately.
Address party workers during the KC(M) state committee meet at the Mammen Mappillai Hall here, the first to be held after the party broke its over three decade-long association with the UDF, K M Mani said the Kerala Congress neither backed nor opposed any particular political outfit. However, he did not hide his deep resentment at the Congress’ failure to rally to the KC(M) support in hard times.
The lawyer-turned-politico, who is in the 50th year of his uninterrupted tenure as a member of the State Assembly, also accused the Congress of trying to glorify the enemies of the KC(M) by alluding to the Congress leaders’ attendance at the wedding reception of bar bribery case whistleblower Biju Ramesh’s daughter and the son of erstwhile Revenue Minister Adoor Prakash. The Kerala Congress(M) did not follow a precedent of carrying its complaints on stamp paper and that it had indeed raised the issues concerning the party at various UDF platforms, before finally deciding to part ways with the Congress-led alliance, Mani said in an apparent reply to Congress MLA K Muraleedharan. Interestingly, the veteran leader, who claimed that the KC(M) did not believe in washing dirty linen in public, made it known that it was not a unilateral decision taken by him in the capacity of party chairman. KC(M) working chairman P J Joseph, who was the next to address the gathering, also reiterated that the decision to sever ties with the UDF was a consensual one. Party MLAs--C F Thomas, Mons Joseph, Roshy Augustine and N Jayarajan-- as well as KC(M) MPs Jose K Mani and Abraham Joy along with senior leaders Joseph M Puthusserry, Thomas Unniyadan and Thomas Chazhikkadan attended the conclave.