THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The UDF meeting on Wednesday is going to be crucial where the leadership will take stock of the situation following Jose K Mani faction’s suspension from the front. While the UDF has sent out an olive branch to Jose, hectic parleys are on to appease him with former CM Oommen Chandy and IUML national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty, MP, are at the forefront.
Even though Jose has said his faction will stay put without being a part of any political front, the UDF is keen to see that he abides by the agreement on the Kottayam district panchayat president post. In the 22-member panchayat, Congress has eight seats, Joseph faction has two, Jose K Mani faction has four, CPM has six and CPI and P C George’s Kerala Janapaksham have one seat each. With Joseph faction having just two seats, UDF is not interested in bringing a no-confidence motion. It is also facing flak for not using appropriate words when the announcement to suspend Jose faction was made.
“The leadership’s claim before TV cameras that it has decided to oust the faction shows UDF’s ineptitude. They should have said the warring faction is suspended temporarily, until further notice,” a Jose faction leader told TNIE.But UDF is hopeful of seeing a turnaround where two senior leaders have taken up the responsibility to appease Jose. They are upbeat about leaders who have evinced interest in rallying behind Joseph. “Jose has softened a bit. There is pressure from his own camp to shed his highhandedness on the issue. Chandy and Kunhalikutty are doing their best to convince him,” a UDF leader told TNIE.
While Jose is raking up sentiments about former KC(M) chairman K M Mani’s memories being given a raw deal after being a part of the front for 38 years, the UDF feels he has no right to say so as he failed in retaining the Pala assembly seat. Meanwhile, the support of the Catholic Church is also crucial for Jose where they don’t share the same equation they had with K M Mani.
‘It’s not a closed chapter’
Fomer CM Oommen Chandy told reporters that the decision to suspend Jose faction was not taken on a happy note. He said there was no other option when the faction statyed defiant on its stand. But he exuded confidence in bringing back the faction to the UDF maintaining that it’s not a “closed chapter”. “We can never forget the contributions of Mani to the UDF. There is still scope for peace talks provided they follow the agreement on the Kottayam district panchayat president post,” said Chandy.