KOCHI: Finally, the Kerala Congress (KC) Joseph faction’s wait for an official party symbol is set to end with its recent victory from the Kottayam Lok Sabha constituency, where the two KC factions clashed. The victory is expected to see the group being recognised as a state party by the Election Commission (EC).
Currently, the faction does not have the privilege to an exclusive election symbol, which it must select from a list of ‘free symbols’ provided by the EC. The party is eager to retain the ‘autorickshaw’, the symbol that brought it victory in Kottayam. However, a final decision on the party symbol will be made at the state high-power committee meeting in Kottayam on Monday, party leaders said.
The faction faced significant challenges early in the campaign due to the lack of a symbol. It’s chief opponent, Thomas Chazhikadan, of the KC (Mani) faction, looked to press the advantage by emphasizing his symbol, the two leaves, in his campaign.
‘Emotional connect’
According to the EC, a party is granted state party status if it wins a Lok Sabha seat allocated to the state during a general election. Success in Kottayam has seen the rank and file develop a strong emotional connect with the auto-rickshaw symbol, pointing out KC (Joseph) leaders. “With state-party status assured, we will write to the Election Commission to place a request for our preferred symbol. The Monday’s meeting will decide on the symbol,” said working chairman P C Thomas.
In the 2021 assembly election, KC (Joseph) candidates contested under the ‘farmer-driving-a-tractor’ symbol, following its merger with the KC faction led by Thomas. All ten candidates fielded by KC fought on this symbol, although the candidate for Changanassery had to opt for the ‘coconut trees’ symbol after an independent placed a request for the ‘farmer-driving-a-tractor’ symbol, resulting in a stalemate. In the 2020 local-body polls, the EC allotted the ‘drum’ symbol to the faction, naming it Kerala Congress (M) PJJ.
Splits & symbols
Given KC’s long history of splits and mergers, the Joseph faction’s flings with election symbols makes for interesting reading. When the party first split into the Joseph and Mani factions in 1979, Mani received the ‘horse’ symbol while Joseph landed the ‘elephant’. The original Kerala Congress, founded in 1964, used the horse as its official symbol. In 1985, when the splinter factions merged, they decided to stay on the horse. Following another split in 1987, Joseph retained the symbol as party chairman. In 1990, when the EC banned the use of animal symbols, the Joseph faction switched to the ‘cycle’. When it merged with KC(M) in 2009, the unified party adopted the ‘two-leaves’ symbol.
Following disagreements between P J Joseph and Jose K Mani after the death of K M Mani, Joseph denied the ‘two leaves’ symbol to the UDF candidate backed by the Mani faction for the Pala bypoll. In 2020, KC(M) split again, with the Jose-led faction joining the LDF. The EC went on to recognise the Jose faction as the official KC(M) and allocated the ‘two leaves’ symbol to it.
