KOCHI: Kerala Congress (Jacob) chairman Johnny Nellore has said that the party has been disbanded and will merge with P J Joseph-led Kerala Congress (M) at a conference to be held in Kochi on March 7. “I have sent a letter to the Election Commission informing it that the party has been disbanded. The party was registered in the name of its chairman, Johnny Nellore. In order to strengthen the Kerala Congress as a prominent regional party, we have decided to merge with the Joseph faction. More groups will follow our path and we are attempting to make only a single Kerala Congress contest in the upcoming assembly elections,” he said here on Thursday.
Johnny Nellore added that the merger was unconditional and it was not a move purportedly to get an assembly seat or prominent positions. “Late T M Jacob also wished to unite all Kerala Congress factions and he tried his best to attain this objective. However, it had failed due to various reasons,” he added.
Kerala Congress (M) working chairman P J Joseph will inaugurate the conference while deputy chairman C F Thomas, MLA, Mons Joseph, MLA, Joy Abraham and other leaders will take part.
Johnny misleading party workers, says Anoop
Meanwhile, Anoop Jacob, the lone member of KC (Jacob), has come out against Johnny Nellore’s statement on disbandment of the party, citing it has no legal validity. “He is attempting to mislead the party workers. The chairman has no right to disband the outfit. Besides, the party has served a show-cause notice on him for violating the party discipline as per the constitution of the party. The last date to submit an explanation for this ended on Thursday. A meeting of the party functionaries slated to be held on Friday will decide the further course of action against Johnny Nellore,” said Anoop.
The KC (Jacob) was pushed into a vertical split as the divide between Anoop and Johnny widened over suggestions for a merger with the Joseph faction. While Johnny decided to move forward with the merger, the group led by Anoop will stay an independent party in the UDF.