Could it be suicidal for the UDF, minus Mani and Joseph, in a three-cornered Assembly elections?

By O.J.George

Kottayam: The Left, particularly the CPM, has reasons to cheer about in West Bengal and Kerala, at least for the time being. It is not because of the good works done by the respective ruling fronts in both the states, headed by the CPM. The golden opportunity has come to it because of the bickering in the rival fronts in both the states headed by the Congress Party.

In West Bengal, Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee is on a hell-bent rush to dethrone the CPM-led front government. She would like to take the credit solely for herself rather than sharing it with the Congress Party. Definitely, she has made inroads into the pocketboroughs of the CPM held in a vice grip all these three decades of time. The grip is loosening. No, the party has lost its grip with the people on a large scale, may be due to incidents like Nandigram and others. Global publicity through increasing number of television channels has also gone against the CPM-led front there.

Mamata Banerjee is not prepared to give even a little credit to Sonia Gandhi-led Congress Party in whose government at the Centre she is a Cabinet minister. In the election to the local bodies, she has conceded a few seats to the Congress which feels that these were simply unwinnable. The Congress retaliated by affirming it would go alone in the ensuing municipal elections. The writing on the wall is clear, the Congress-Trinamul bonhomie is over. The near-drubbed CPM would naturally gain from the rift in the rival camp.

In Kerala, the Left, particularly, the faction-ridden CPM, can definitely feel happy about the public bashing by the Congress and the Kerala Congress c(M). Kerala Congress(M) supremo K.M.Mani has been publicly criticised by various senior leaders of the Congress Party as well as junior functionaries at the district and local levels over the merger of the P.J.Joseph faction, which was with the LDF till the other day, with the Mani faction.

Since the differences have trickled down to the grassroots level, there Is no point in making efforts to bring about a patch-up. Muslim League leader P.K.Kunjalikutty, who had taken the initiative on his own to solve the problem, has given up his effort.

The Catholic Church, to which Mani and Joseph belong, is keeping guarded silence over the developments, for it cannot publicly vouchsafe for sealing the merger of the Mani and Joseph factions.

But everyone, even those who outwardly deny such interventions, know it for a fact that the church or some of its leaders have blessed the political matrimony.
The Congress-led UDF is not in a position to convene a meeting of the leaders of its front. Things have gone further down the patch-up level, for Mani has made it clear there is no going back for him as far as the merger issue concerned. He has urged his followers to muster strength on a greater level, affirming when strength is earned, seats would come round automatically.

Congress is willing to part with only the number of seats allotted to the Mani faction as usual even if P.J.Joseph group is drafted into the Mani faction. Mani and Joseph know it for a fact that even if they contest elections alone, they would get substantially more than this number of seven or so offered by the Congress. Splinter Kerala Congress groups led by R.Balakrishna Pillai and T.M.Jacob may say Mani’s move is suicidal, for their parochial gains.

Could it be suicidal for the UDF minus Mani and Joseph in the ensuing three-cornered Assembly elections?