The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) appeared to be agonising over Congress veteran K. V. Thomas's decision to attend a national seminar on "Challenges to Federalism" at the venue of the CPI(M) party congress in Kannur.
The Congress has viewed the move as a “flagrant violation” of a diktat from party president Sonia Gandhi. However, an anticipated furious denunciation of Prof. Thomas from the Congress is yet to come.
Indications are that Prof. Thomas's "final break" with his political tribe might occur on Saturday if he turns up at the seminar venue in Kannur.
KPCC president K. Sudhakaran and Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan said the party would seek the All India Congress Committee's guidance.
AICC stand
AICC general secretary in charge of Kerala Tariq Anwar told reporters here that the party high command would back any decision by the KPCC.
Prof.. Thomas’s “cosying up” to the CPI(M) is perceived as a setback for the Congress. He appears to have come off the fence after a year of griping about being sidelined.
It seems the CPI(M) has once more successfully employed its “all too familiar” playbook to engineer defections from the “faction-ridden” KPCC. The KPCC is reportedly apprehensive that Prof. Thomas’s departure could subvert the party’s electoral prospects in the upcoming Thrikkakara Assembly byelection in Ernakulam if the veteran landed on Left Democratic Front’s side of the fence.
Firm base
Worryingly for the Congress, Prof. Thomas has repeatedly claimed to have a firm base in the electorally decisive Latin Catholic community in Kochi. His months of ambivalence over whether he would hitch his cart to the LDF’s wagon had the KPCC on tenterhooks.
The CPI(M) statement that Prof. Thomas would not find himself on the street if he attended the seminar has added more theatre to the unfolding political drama.
In March, Mr. Sudhakaran cracked the whip on party leaders cosying up to the CPI(M). The party felt CPI(M) overtures to Congress leaders concealed a design to engineer desertions and blunt the UDF's anti-government campaign.
