KOTTAYAM: It is official. Pala MLA Mani C Kappan, who parted ways with the NCP and the Left front, joined the UDF on Sunday by attending the reception accorded to the Aishwarya Kerala Yatra led by Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala at Pala.
Kappan joined the meeting at the end of a massive roadshow with his supporters in the town. The UDF top brass, including former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, P J Joseph, P K Kunhalikutty, gave a rousing reception to the breakaway NCP legislator.
The development brings a closure to the months-long contention over the Pala assembly seat following the arrival of the Jose K Mani-led Kerala Congress (M) to the LDF fold. As an LDF candidate, Kappan had defeated Jose -- who was with the UDF then -- to end KC (M)’s reign in the UDF bastion in September 2019, in a by-election necessitated by the death of K M Mani.
Chennithala, who welcomed Kappan, said the LDF was a sinking ship and that Kappan had escaped from it. Stressing on issues like the crises faced by rubber farmers and various Christian communities during the meeting, the Opposition leader said: “If the UDF comes to power, the Rubber Price Stabilisation Fund will be raised to `250 and a slew of development projects initiated in Pala. The concerns of the Christian communities will also be addressed.”
Unleashing a scathing attack on Jose K Mani and CPM district secretary V N Vasavan, Kappan alleged the duo was standing in the way of the development of Pala.
“Development projects worth `462 crore have been implemented in Pala over the past 16 months,” Kappan said, extending his gratitude to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the LDF for their support to him during his tenure as MLA.
“With the arrival of Jose K Mani, the LDF’s fall has begun. Whoever associates with Jose is bound to perish sooner rather than later, that is the history. My father, Cherian J Kappan, a freedom fighter, had introduced K M Mani, Jose’s father, to politics. He should remember that,’’ Kappan said amid loud applause from UDF workers.
Kunhalikutty, national general secretary of IUML, termed as just the issue raised by Kappan that the Pala seat is set to be allotted in the LDF to the party defeated last time.“Many people are coming to the UDF from LDF. It’s the beginning of UDF’s victory. When the Aishwarya Kerala Yatra reaches Thiruvananthapuram, more people will join the UDF,” he said.
MLA to launch new outfit
Kottayam: Pala MLA Mani C Kappan and his supporters will float a new outfit which will join UDF as an ally. A 10-member committee, headed by Kappan as chairman and former NCP treasurer Babu Karthikeyan as convenor, has been formed to complete the procedures required for registration and other formalities to launch the new party. The district committees will be reconstituted. On Sunday, Kappan and a few state NCP leaders resigned their party membership. NCP state secretaries Salim P Mathew and Babu Thomas, besides Babu Karthikeyan, are among those who have joined Kappan.