Actor Sreenivasan, director Siddique, and philanthropist and Managing Director of V-Guard Industries Kochouseph Chittilappilly joined Twenty20, a political party headed by a private firm. It was in 2013 that Twenty20 was formed by the welfare arm of the Kitex group using its corporate social responsibility funds.

All three said that they would not contest in the upcoming Assembly polls but will serve on the advisory panel of the party.

“The one thing that attracted me to the party was that they have said that they will not lean towards the left or right, they will move straight. That is why I have entered politics at the age of 70,” Kochouseph Chittilappilly told the media on Monday.

He added that currently there are seven members on the advisory panel. There is also a think tank group attached to the party that works behind the scenes. He said that there are many prominent people in the think tank who do not want their names disclosed.

Actor Sreenivasan recalled that first he met MC Jacob, founder chairman of the Anna Kitex group and one of Kerala’s pioneering industrialists, who was also a naturopath, 15 years ago, on the recommendation of the present Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was then party secretary. The actor said that Jacob was a noble person who used to treat people without any remuneration.

He added that Sabu Jacob, the present head of the Kitex group and Twenty20 leader, has the same good qualities as his father.

In 2015, Twenty20 came to power in the Kizhakkambalam gram panchayat. In the 2020 local polls, the party won in three more panchayats. Now, it has announced that it would contest in the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections.

Sabu Jacob had earlier told the media that the group would field candidates in all 14 districts of Kerala.