Do You Hear the death Knell of Kerala Congress-Part III

In the last two postings,I dealt with the historical factors that has brought the party to its death bed.This posting is to give an idea of the current state of affairs.

All factors which justified the existence of KC is not reiavantent now.The generation which had the sentiment of P.T.Chacko is dwindling now.Present generation only knows P.C.Thomas,son of P.T . Chacko.Unfortunately his image is in no way comparable to that of Chacko.So is the case with Jose K Mani ,son of K.M.Mani and Anoop Jacob,son of T.M.Jacob.Ganesh Kumar,son of R.Balakrishna Pillai has a different problem.His image as a capable,less corrupt,and more progressive in outlook has made his father get provoked and move against him!!! what is called perumthachen complex .K.M.Mani has heath problems,so is the case with P.J.Joseph,who in any case will not be able to command acceptance from the followers of Mani.Joseph is not as Machiavellian as Mani,though a better soul than most politicians. So,once K.M.Mani is off the political  scene,the party will become rudderless and most probably splinter into n number of groups.The other one man shows are non existent at the grass root level.It only remains to be seen how long the rank and file of Congress will condescend to carry these vethals on their shoulders.

But the more important than that is the erosion of the diaspora which formed the vote bank of the party.Syrian Catholic Diocese of Changanchery,Kanjirappally,Palai form the backbone of the party.Even when the Bishops of these Dioceses were not favourably dis positioned to KC,the people at large stood solidly behind the party. But the ground rules are changing.Three consistencies of  the heartland of KC vanished into the thin air-Akalakkunnam,Vazhoor in Kottayam district and Kallooppara in Pathanamthitta District.This is due to the dwindling population in these districts due to migration of younger generation seeking greener pastures all over the globe.The rubber farmers are a happy lot now with extremely rewarding prices for the product.Their needs being satisfied their emotional attachment to KC has waned.Rubber prices are a function of international market forces due to the new economic orderSame thing happened to CPM in Palghat district sometime back.Land reforms made agricultural workers land owners and they moved up the social ladder from working class to petty bourgeoisie.The naturally affiliated themselves to parties that are considered petty bourgeois and CPM faced an erosion of their cadre.A similar fate is now met with by KC. The Catholic Church is now capable of directly negotiating with Congress.Earlier they needed to point to the political muscle of KC to get their things done.Now Congress needs the support of  Catholic Church very badly for their survival in Kerala.So the hardcore support base of KC are lurkwarm in their attachment to the party.Even a stratagist like Mani couldnot correctly read the writings on the wall.His attempt to bring in a new political philosophy of adhwanavargam turned out to be a joke and failed to give any additionality to the party.

Most lethal blow was the loss of credibility due to countless splkits and mergers.Each party leader bringing up their sons as the crown prince made the party a family enterprise.So the begining of the end has started.Congress will be happy to see that happeni sooner than later.The vote bank of KC has nowhere else to go ,but Congress.Class,mindset of that diaspora is such that they willnot be able to come to terms with any other political formation.

On the whole,KC has done well.It has been a political force of consequence for half a century.Similer outfits that came into existance around the time it did,vanished into the thin air long long back.Regional parties as a phinominen got a thrust due to the sucess of this party.But the time has come for new political experiments.Keral had always been a crucible of new political formations..Leaders with some following will find a place in the new formations and others cosigned to the dustbin of history.

Do You hear the Death Knell Of Kerala Congress-Part II

Kerala Congress was launched in 1964 and faced its first trial with electorate in the very next year.Kottayam District Committee of the party almost in entreaty joined the party.Mathachen Kuruvinakkunnel,president of DCC and a close confident of P.T.Chacko was the fulcrum of the party's formative days.K.M.Mani at that time was one of the DCC secretaries.Although most DCC office bearers who were from Chacko group instantly joined the new party,Mani was carefully weighing his options.He wanted an assurance that Kerala Congress will be fielding him(and not Mathachen)as party candidate from Palai Constituency.He got that assurance and lost no time in jumping on to  the bandwagon.Performance of the party was spectacular in 1965 assembly elections.The party bagged 25 assembly seats in the 133 member assembly.Congress got 35,Muslim league which was an ally of KC got 6,CPM 33,CPI3,SSP,RSP,KTP,KSP etc shared the balance.Congress refused to take an un conditional support of KC,others could not manage the numbers,Communists offered support to KC and League which was turned down.The assembly never got formed and president's rule continued.

By 1967,political kaleidoscope underwent major changes.CPM,CPI,Muslim League,SSP,RSP,KTP&KSP formed a7 party united front,Congress and KC took a stand alone posture and the elections gave a sweeping victory to CPM led united front.Congress could manage only 9 seats,its lowest ever tally,KC 5.In 1970,kaleidoscope revolved again,CPI,Muslim League,RSP broke away from CPM,joined hands with Congress and KC,but the ministry did not last long.Again a midterm elections,KC broke away from the allience  and fought the elections in alliance with Congress (o)led by Nijalingappa,Morarji,Kamaraj etc.It brougt back CPI-Congress(i) led front to power ,Congress (O) fared miserably,but KC proved its mass base with a strength of 15 seats.It was the peak of its strength.As K.M.Mani later on philosophised,the party had to split with growth,which it did at regular intervals thereafter.But the second part of his philosophy that it grew with splits remained in his and other KC men only.Fact was that each split took away a part of its mass base.

Time came when the party had to find a reason for its existence.P.T.Chacko sentiment started waning as times moved ahead.Strategist in Mani found the cause of Rubber farmers as a potential base for the party.Every fall in Rubber prices was an opportunity for KC.It perfectly jelled well with the party's image as pro farmer party thanks mainly to E.John Jacob,leader of paddy farmers in Kuttanad.Other parties were reluctant to take up pro farmer causes for fear of being branded as pro rich,but the fact was that there was a huge number of small and medium farmers in the state.With the land reforms,the class of large farmers ceased to exist in paddy sector.Large Rubber planters were not affected by the land reforms,but the marginal,small and medium sector of Rubber farmers needed a political party to fight for them.This was why KC continued to exist ever after Bangla Congress,Uthkal Congress and similer outfits that came into existence as break away groups from Congress either disintegrated or merged into larger parties.

Over a period of time,every leader who could muster some support,even to the extent of being the scale turner in one constituency found it profitable to float an outfit of his own rather than being part of a larger mechanism.Polarisation of Kerala politics as left and right fronts helped these groups to survive by joining hands with one of the fronts.Since  winning or loosing elections depend on 3to 4 percentile of voters swing,even small groups were accommodated in the fronts..Even the faction led by K.M.Mani will not win a single seat if they contest alone.All other factions will not get back their deposit in any constituancy if they contest alone.But their votes can make UDF loose seats.Mani group can cost some10 seats to UDF.Capability of the strike power of other groups are doubtful,but UDF is unwilling to take a chance due to the precarious balance of votes in Kerala.That is why all KC factions that are at best family run enterprises(except Mani faction,though run by Mani and his son,has some kind of an organisational set up)are still capable of getting their pound of flesh when it comes to power sharing.

But ground realities are changing.The changes are due to a variety of reasons,which I shall deal with in my next posting

Do You Hear the Deathknell of Kerala Congress? Part I

All factions of Kerala Congress celebrated the birthday of the party on October 4th.As per the latest count,the following are the factions.

1.Led by K.M.Mani-the strongest of the factions.Their ranks swelled with the merger of an equally strong faction led by P.J.Joseph and a splinter group led by P.C.George.
2.Led by R.Balakrishna Pillai,founder General Secretary of the party,heading for a split now .Already minuscule party with the faction led by his own son walking out will practically become a one man party
3.Led by Anoop Jacob,Minister in the present state government,consisting of followers of T.M.Jacob who died a year ago.Present Chairman of the party,Johny Nelloor seems to be dissatisfied and said to be looking for better political opportunities elsewhere.
4.Led by P.C.Thomas,son of late P.T.Chacko,patron saint of all factions.This is the only faction aligned with the left.
5.Yet to be formally declared as a separate entity,options before the group is either to form yet another Kerala Congress or to merge with Congress

It all started in 1964.Leaders of warring two groups in Indian National Congress in Kerala were led by C.K.Govinden Nair and P.T.Chacko.Both leaders had impeccable track record.While CK was a true Gandhian from the freedom struggle days,Chacko too had the credentials of freedom fighter.The groups had no ideological differences,but was more of regional and communal overtones.Chacko had his followers mainly in the Christian-Nair belt of Chathannore to Angamaly.CK was basically a Malabar leader.With Shanker leader of EEzhava Community aligning with him,he had a trans Kerala support base.. Chacko's die hard followers were Syrian Catholics,Orthodox/Jacobite,Marthoma faithfuls of central Travancore.

Chacko group lost factional fights many times over but the followers of the group was fiercely loyal to their leader.Although a few of the faction leaders crossed over,the grassroots following remained more or less intact.Unexpected death of Chacko was a great shock to the followers.Chacko for them was more an emotion than a political philosophy.They rightly felt that without Chacko,they will be orphaned in Congress and become insignificant.Mannathu Padmanabhan,Patriarch of NSS also had reasons to be disillusioned with Congress Party.From the days of Vimochana samaram Chacko and Mannam were bum chums.Not that they had been best of friends ever thereafter,Mannam always had the interests of NSS first and last in his set of priorities.With Chacko not in the arena,Mannam decided to throw his weight with the followers of Chacko.Changanassery and Palai Dioceses of Syrian Catholic Church also backed them.A political party was launched on 4th August 1964 at Thirunakkara Maidan the heart of Kottayam town.