In March 2015, the ruckus created by the LDF protesting against KM Mani presenting the annual budget had made national headlines. LDF MLAs had protested violently inside the Kerala Assembly because Mani faces allegations of corruption.
However, while those allegations against Mani remain, the CPI (M) seems to have relaxed its attitude towards him.
This comes soon after the recent decision of the Kerala Congress (M), led by Mani, to break with its 35-year-old alliance with the UDF in Kerala, which is being seen as a crucial shift in the state’s politics.
Although Mani announced that his party would maintain equidistance from all three major fronts, the NDA and the LDF have reportedly been eyeing the party with interest. While the NDA has openly expressed its willingness to accept the KC (M) into its alliance, the LDF now seems to have indirectly hinted at its own interest through an editorial in the CPI (M) mouth piece Deshabhimani.
In the editorial, Deshabhimani warns KC (M) against the dangers of joining NDA. It expresses the hope that the KC (M), being a party that ideologically stands for farmers and minorities, will not join the NDA.
“KC (M)’s decision to remain as an independent block after breaking from UDF is good. But to keep equidistance from all fronts is illogical,” the article adds.
It stresses that the UDF is a sinking ship that has no more scope in Kerala politics. Claiming that the UDF will soon disintegrate, the article also warns Mani that the NDA is using marketing tactics to draw his party in. It points out that reports of the NDA offering a position in the union cabinet to KM Mani’s son and MP, Jose K Mani, are indicative of the tactics of the NDA.
“Mani should remember that the Sangh Parivar had allegedly fired churches and raped nuns, that missionaries were killed and Dalit Christians were excluded from the SC/ST category,” it cautions.
Reminding Mani of the LDF-KC (M) alliance in 1980, the article says that winning elections is not the LDF’s main aim, and that the alliance aspires to be strong enough to defend against capitalism, autocracy and communalism. Thus, the article concludes, “The LDF should tactically utilise the clash between its opposition party leaders.”
With the editorial warning KC (M) away from the NDA, predicting the disintegration of the UDF, and calling the equidistance approach illogical, the implication seems fairly clear – the KC (M) should join the LDF.
However, in the wake of the editorial CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran and CPI (M) leader VS Achuthanandan have strongly condemned the party’s willingness to accept KM Mani.
Rajendran said that Mani will not be accepted in LDF as he is still tainted by allegations of involvement in the bar bribery scam. “Leaving the UDF will not make him a saint. People voted for LDF because it is ideologically opposed to corruption,” Rajendran said.
VS similarly said that Mani is one of the most corrupt politicians in Kerala, and added that the LDF’s ideology would never match that of such leaders.