THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In her first public remarks on Anil Antony shifting his allegiance from the Congress to the BJP, Elizabeth Antony has defended her son’s move. Speaking before members of a private prayer group, Congress leader A K Antony’s wife stressed that it was a resolution passed by the AICC at its Raipur ‘chintan shivir’ against dynasty politics that sealed the political future of her two sons. “This forced Anil to cosy up to the BJP,” she adds.
Elizabeth said that Anil is happy and content since joining the BJP and exuded confidence that he will scale greater heights. Elizabeth, who runs the NGO Navoothan Charitable Foundation, was supposedly speaking at the Kreupasanam religio-socio cultural centre, run by Fr V P Joseph Valiyaveettil under the Alleppey diocese. The 18-minute-44-second video uploaded on YouTube on Friday shows her speaking in detail about how the couple had overcome the side effects of Covid.
In the video, Elizabeth notes that her husband lost confidence as his feet give away and he was losing strength. This forced him to seek retirement from active politics and relocate to Thiruvananthapuram, she adds.
“I couldn’t see my husband sitting idle. When nothing happened for eight months, I renewed my agreement with god in February. Much to my relief, my husband was again chosen to the Congress Working Committee in August. He regained his self-confidence, which saw him travel to Hyderabad alone,” she says, sobbing.
Elizabeth, who is also a lawyer, recounts how 39-year-old Anil returned to India hoping to enter active politics after his higher studies at Stanford University. “His hopes were dashed when the Raipur party meet passed a resolution against dynasty politics,” she says.
“My husband never helped them [our sons] get a foothold in politics. Then I put a prayer request before god. To my utter dismay, the row over the BBC documentary cropped up. I pleaded before god, as I was helpless. I was keen to see my son making strides in politics. One day he called me to say that he had got a call from the PMO. After four days, TV channel headlines screamed that he had joined the BJP. I again pleaded with god to ensure peace and harmony at home,” says Elizabeth. She adds her husband suggested against talking politics at home.