TRIVANDRUM, 17 April 2005 — Former Kerala Chief Minister A.K. Antony has kept everyone guessing about his moves after declaring that he will not take part in the three rallies to be organized by the ruling Congress to commemorate the Dandi march.
Antony, who was in New Delhi during the first rally on April 13, has said he will not attend the rally at Cochin or the last one to be held at Kozhikode next week.
“He has already said that he would not take part in the rallies, instead he would take part in a 200 km commemorative walk that is being held from April 20 to 25 from Kozhikode to Payyanur. He would be there at the start and at the end of the walk, joining it in between,” Antony’s office said.
The former chief minister had made a valiant attempt to ensure the Congress did not expel K. Muraleedharan, a former president of the state unit. Muraleedharan was suspended for defying a party directive and going ahead with three rallies organized by his dissident father K. Karunakaran.
The Congress expelled Muraleedharan from the party for six years on April 10.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, meanwhile, has tried to play down Antony’s absence from the rallies. “He has always been a person who never compromised on unity and that is his style of operation,” Chandy said. “Antony has said that had Muraleedharan listened to what he was saying, certain actions could have been avoided. Maybe he is playing his part to see that the party does not split,” he said.
“The first rally was a success. The last one at Kozhikode would clearly show that there is no dent in our party. My expectation is that less than 10 percent of the existing Congress workers would go if a new party was formed. Haven’t you heard a large section of Congress workers are leaving the Karunakaran faction to be with us? Of the 14 district Congress presidents, all but one are with us. Many of the district level office bearers are also with us,” said Chandy.
Lino Jacob, a Karunakaran supporter and the man behind the dissident faction rally held at Cochin last month, has also returned to the fold.
“In 1982, when the two factions of the Congress under Antony and Karunakaran united in the presence of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, my father was the state Congress president and I just cannot think of leaving the Congress party to join a new party”, said Jacob.
Now all are waiting for May 1, the day Karunakaran said a major announcement would be made at a meeting in Trichur.
People are also waiting to see if Antony could still do something to prevent a split in the party as he has said that there is still time for a patch-up.
Meanwhile, Kerala’s opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) said it had no plans of splitting the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) by taking advantage of the dissidence in its ranks.
“It is good that disgruntled UDF allies are lashing out at (Chief Minister Oomen) Chandy and we welcome that. But at the moment we have no plans to rope them into our fold,” LDF leader V.S. Achuthanandan said.
“We have a system in place and none can just walk into our fold,” he added. Currently, two UDF partners, led by former ministers R. Balakrishna Pillai and T.M. Jacob, and a faction of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (Bolshevik) led by A.V. Thamarakshan have declared war on Chandy.
