KM Mani hits half century in Kerala House

Thiruvananthapuram: It was barely two years ago that LDF legislators went berserk inside the Assembly to prevent K.M. Mani from presenting his 13th Budget. But on Wednesday, the entire House was one in celebrating Mani’s half century in the State Assembly.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s was perhaps the most glowing tribute. “He has risen to the position of the rare few who have acquired an exalted position in world parliamentary history,” the Chief Minister said.

Mani’s most trenchant critic P.C. George, who normally loves to mockingly call him ‘Pala member’, addressed him as “my dearest Mani sir”. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said K.M. Mani was ‘knighted’ right from the day he entered the Assembly. “Even President K.R. Narayanan had addressed him ‘Sir’,” Mr Chennithala said.

It was on March 15, 1967, that K.M. Mani made his first appearance in the Assembly. Ever since, Mani has been the only constant feature of the State Assembly; even the Assembly building had changed. “It is not a small thing to complete 50 years as legislator. To win from the same constituency consecutively, and to win even when he switched sides is a rare feat. I doubt whether there is such a record in world history,” the Chief Minister said. In fact, Mani first won from Pala in 1965. Then, the elections took place in the backdrop of two political cataclysms: the CPI split, and the rupturing of Congress to form Kerala Congress. No party could muster a clear majority and the Assembly had to be dissolved.

When former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy first met him, K M Mani was Kottayam District Congress Committee secretary. “I was a student then, and Mani sir was our leader,” Chandy said. He also remembers the first speech Mani made in the Assembly. “It was about farmers. I remember him demanding '10 a kg for rubber farmers. And yesterday, too, I heard him speak. Again, it was also about farmers. The only difference was he was demanding '200 a kilo for rubber farmers,” Chandy said. Chennithala recalled that it was Mani who introduced pension for farmers and agricultural labourers.

P.C. George described himself as Mani’s biggest enemy but, throwing light on Mani’s longevity, said he cared for Pala the way no other politician had cared for their constituency. “Even when he was in the hospital, he made it a point to enquire about the well-being of his people,” George said.