A day after his debacle in the recently concluded Pala bye-polls in Kerala, United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate Jose Tom Pulikkunnel launched a scathing attack on his party, the Kerala Congress (Mani)’s working chairman PJ Joseph, by referring to him as the real ‘villain’ behind his defeat. Addressing the media on Saturday, Jose said that with his defeat, Joseph’s “agenda” has been successfully implemented.
Mani C Kappan, a candidate of the ruling LDF ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), won the bye-election for the Pala Assembly constituency in Kottayam.
According to a report by the Times of India (ToI), Jose said that the Jose K Mani faction, which already has two Members of Parliament (MPs) and two Members of Legislative (MLAs), would have strengthened their position had they got one more MLA. He was quoted by ToI to have said, “Joseph prepared a social agenda to prevent this and implemented it right from the day of the election notification till the polling day. Not allowing the symbol, bringing rebel candidate and unwanted statements were all part of this.”
Ahead of the bye-polls, which was announced following the demise of Kerala Congress (M) supremo KM Mani, there had been a tussle between the PJ Joseph faction and the Jose K Mani faction - both within the Kerala Congress (M) - regarding the selection of their candidate to contest the bye-polls.
On his Facebook post, Jose K Mani had criticised PJ Joseph for his stubbornness in refusing to use the party symbol for their candidate as well as for Joseph’s the statements prior to the elections, which, according to Jose Mani, was ‘politically immature’.
Jose also went on to add that he will not delve much into the issue keeping in mind the emotions of the UDF workers as well as taking into consideration the other upcoming bye-polls in the state.
According to a report by The New Indian Express (TNIE), several other Congress leaders have also attributed the animosity between the two factions as one of the reasons behind the UDF defeat. Senior Congress leader and former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief MM Hassan said that their defeat was a silent message that their supporters will not accept the arrogance and disunity in a political party.