Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram   

KC(J) split another headache for LDF

By C. Gouridasan Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM May 31. First it was the Congress(S). Though it is over a year now since the party mutated into Congress(S) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Left Democratic Front (LDF) is yet to decide what to do with them. Now it is the turn of the Kerala Congress (Joseph) and a decision on the twins to be born would be equally tricky for the Opposition alliance.

The Kerala Congress (Joseph) had been experiencing a serious internal disquiet for quite some time now. The outspoken P.C. George has been making things difficult for his party supremo, P.J. Joseph, by taking up causes not palatable to the party top brass and joining campaigns that did not have the blessings of the party and the interest groups that sustain it.

The Mathikettan row was one such. Mr. George was one of the most vocal supporters of the Leader of the Opposition, V.S. Achuthanandan, who nearly put the Government on the mat over the issue. That nothing has come out of it is another matter, though. During the recent Rajya Sabha polls, Mr. George had put both his party and the Opposition LDF in a spot by calling on the combative senior Congress leader, K. Karunakaran, and declaring solidarity with him.

The maverick in Mr. George brought more embarrassment for the Opposition front and the CPI(M) when the Cooperation Minister, M.V. Raghavan, disclosed that he had approached him seeking his help to dislodge A.K. Antony as Chief Minister and offering him a Cabinet berth in a CPI(M)-backed alternative Government. Whether he had done so with the knowledge of the CPI(M) or not, the whole issue had a devastating effect on his party which had been treading a cautious path vis-a-vis the Antony Government.

Mr. George had been quite a vocal critic of the Antony regime and his bete noire, the Revenue Minister, K.M. Mani. He is liked by LDF cadres for his outspokenness and sharp responses to barbs from the ruling Front. He has also declared his strong opposition to the party's attempts to merge with the Kerala Congress (Mani). The party leadership has all along had the suspicion that news reports about the moves to walk into the KC(M) were the handiwork of Mr. George and this could be one of the reasons for the decision to suspend him from the primary membership of the party.

A toss-up between Mr. Joseph and Mr. George would be difficult for the LDF leadership. The LDF State committee is meeting here on June 2. Mr. Joseph, who has declared that he continued to be part of the Opposition alliance, would attend it and explain his stand. Months ago, the KC(J) had decided not to send Mr. George as the party representative to LDF State committee meetings. Today's developments notwithstanding, the LDF leadership would not extend any invitation to him for Monday's meeting.

There is also the larger question as to what the LDF would choose to do with the two splinter groups of KC(J). If it is to go by the precedent of keeping both the Congress(S) and NCP out of the LDF panel meetings, it would have to keep Mr. Joseph also out of it. But that would depend on whether the leadership wants to hasten Mr. Joseph's reported desire to merge his party with the KC(M). That the sections of the LDF are unhappy with the KC(J) is no secret, but the leadership as a whole would be averse to hasten the party's exit from the alliance.

The people who would be happy with the turn of events today are the leaders of the Congress(S) and NCP. They can now hope for an early end to their long wait for return into the LDF policy planning body. Suddenly, the Monday meeting of the LDF State committee has assumed more than ordinary significance. That it required a new headache to make it so can be considered part of the deal.

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