CPM cool, awaits K M Mani line

Thiruvananthapuram: It’s early days, but CPM State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has opened up on the widening rift between Congress and Kerala Congress (M), saying KC (M) chairman K M Mani should adopt the correct political line than be stuck in short-term opportunistic politics. Speaking exclusively to DC, Mr Balakrishnan said the KC (M) continuation in the electorally emaciated UDF would hasten its political irrelevance. “It’s for Mr Mani to realize the growing irrelevance of his party, hitched to the destinies of Congress”, said Mr Balakrishnan.

Mr Balakrishnan’s comments came in the backdrop of Mr Mani’s allegation of a plot hatched by Mr Ramesh Chennithala, then Home Minister, and bar owner Biju Ramesh to implicate him in bargate amid speculations that he might desert the UDF. Both Mr Chennithala and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy have denied any anti-Mani moves but Mr Mani sent his youth leaders to petition Congress president Sonia Gandhi against the State leaders.

Mr Balakrishnan wasn’t convinced and saw Mr Mani’s outbursts as perhaps a transient phenomenon. “It’s a fact that the shock defeat in recent Assembly elections has unnerved Mr Mani but when we first accused the UDF Government of adopting double standards in the bargate prosecution, he had kept silent. Which shows he was reluctant to accept it then and preferred to stick with Congress”.

Asked whether the CPM did not see Mr Mani’s latest allegations seriously, Mr Balakrishnan said it was for KPCC president V M Sudheeran to comment on the conspiracy charge. Mr Mani should, without further delay, disclose the outcome of his party’s internal probe into the conspiracy, which should bring more clarity to the bargate.

Whether Mr Mani’s change of stance isn’t recognition of the LDF’s political and organizational preparedness against rightwing forces and his gravitation to the Left, Mr Balakrishnan said “time is not yet ripe for a political realignment. Our party has not discussed these issues, at least for now”. Mr Balakrishnan has bitter memories of Mr Mani “ditching” the Nayanar ministry in 1981 in the company of the Antony Congress, within days of his asserting that “Kerala Congress will never leave the LDF”.

But much water has flowed down Meenachil since the 1980’s. Mr Mani had hobnobbed with CPM till a few weeks before Mr Biju Ramesh’s bombshell. The air had been thick with rumours of Mr Mani soon-to-be CM. Now, he alleges the Ramesh-Biju plot was to pin him down in UDF.  This augurs ill for Congress as it underscores Mr Mani’s loss of confidence in the current leadership in Kerala. Mr Mani may well be preparing the ground to bale himself out of UDF, but much depends on how the fronts and parties outside the UDF respond to his overtures.