The curious tale of two PC's in Kerala politics

Thiruvananthapuram : As Assembly polls are due in May, Kerala sees a hive of political activity with turncoats and parties switching coalitions.

Amid this are the two PCs who do not want their plans go belly up. These seasoned politicians--P.C. Thomas and P.C. George -- are bending over backwards to enter the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

Both PCs are not without striking similarities: Thomas, who is turning 70 later this month, is a six time MP from the Muvattupuzha Lok Sabha seat (no longer extant after delimitation) from 1989 to 2009.

Thomas, son of P.T.Chacko, the founding member of the Kerala Congress party, was a close associate of the Kerala Congress (M) veteran late K.M. Mani. He was thus fielded five times from Muvattupuzha. However, the relation between the two soured, after Mani began promoting his own son Jose K. Mani.

After parting ways with Mani in 2003, Thomas became a Union Minister of State for Law in the then A.B. Vajpayee government and a year later he, as an NDA candidate, defeated the Left candidate and the UDF cadidate Jose K. Mani from the Muvattupuzha Lok Sabha seat.

After 2009, following delimitation the Muvattupuzha seat went into oblivion, so did Thomas from the electoral politics and his party Kerala Congress (Thomas) was an ally of the BJP-led NDA. After feeling the BJP was ignoring him, he has decided to say goodbye.

"We have already verbally informed the BJP that we feel sad that as a party, we were unable to do anything for the people and hence we will be leaving," said Thomas and expressed hope that he might get the nod from the UDF.

After Jose K. Mani crossed over to the Left, Thomas decided to make his move. But after finding strong opposition to joining the Kerala Congress (Joseph), he has decided to explore the possibility of being accommodated as an ally of the UDF and for that talks have begun.

With the Assembly elections expected in May 2021, the Congress leadership is non-committal about giving him any assurance of a seat and according to top Congress sources, Thomas is likely to be given one seat for himself to contest in Kottayam district.

Sixty-nine-year-old George is now a sitting legislator, seventh time from Poonjar in Kottayam district. In his long political career, his loyalties shifted from K.M. Mani to P.J. Joseph, before forming his own party. In the 2016 Assembly polls, neither the Left nor the UDF accommodated him, but he took them all in his home turf.

Like Thomas, he took his small party (Kerala Congress-Secular) to the NDA, but decided to come out of the NDA and is now knocking hard at the UDF doors.

"Yes, talks are going on as a few things have to be sorted out. We are all hopeful that everything will turn out to be mutually beneficial. Let us wait and see," said George.

With the entry of Jose K. Mani, the Left has now 11 parties. The Congress-led UDF has six full fledged parties and three friendly parties, who still have not been given seats to contest in the Assembly elections.

With the local bodies poll most likely to be held in December, the coming weeks are expected to see hectic political parleys to iron out differences before welcoming new allies by both the UDF and the LDF.

IANS report with edits