TIMELINE: Kerala’s amoebic Congress never fails to amuse people!

8 years ago

Image Courtesy: Newindianexpress

Congress in Kerala has undergone several amoebic divisions from the time it was founded by K M George. In its long history of 52 years the party hasn’t failed to bewilder people of the state with its growing number offshoots.

Keralites refer to the party as one which ‘grows as it splits’ and ‘splits as it grows’. The latest split wasn’t really a surprise. Francis George, son of the founding member of Kerala Congress (KC) K M George, and two other former MLAs quit the K M Mani faction of the party ‘Congress (M)’. Francis, reportedly, left the KC (M) dissatisfied over Mani’s alleged intention to name his son the scion of KC. However, rumours suggest that the real reason to trigger the split is that the leaders were dissatisfied over the seat division for the upcoming state assembly election.

Here’s a timeline chronicling how the KC ‘grew as it split’ and ‘split as it grew’ over the years.

October 9, 1964 – Kerala Congress was founded after breaking away from Congress. It grew primarily under K M George. K M Mani, R Balakrishna Pillai and P J Joseph were the other prominent leaders.

1977 – Balakrishna Pillai severed ties with Kerala Congress following a tussle for control over the party after George’s death in 1976. After defecting KC, he shaped a new faction—Kerala Congress (B)—just before the state assembly elections that year. The Pillai-group that had crossed over, won two seats in the LDF camp following the elections.

1979 – Then state home minister K M Mani quit Kerala Congress owing to his differences with P J Joseph. He formed Kerala Congress (M). While KC (M) stayed with UDF for the panchayat elections that year, KC under Joseph went with LDF.

1980 – During the assembly elections, both factions under Mani and Joseph switched sides. KC (M) moved over to LDF along with the Congress leader A K Antony and KC under P J Joseph returned to UDF.

1982 – KC (M) returned to UDF and all three factions represented UDF as separate entities in the 1982 assembly elections.

1985 – Realising the setbacks following the division, the Kerala Congress (M) and Kerala Congress (Balakrishna Pillai) merged with its parent Kerala Congress under P J Joseph. The merged KC was represented by 25 MLAs and four ministers in the state cabinet.

1987 – Just before the assembly elections, the differences between Joseph and Mani snowballed. Mani re-formed Kerala Congress (M) after he famously declared ‘If split, so be it’. Pillai and Joseph remained in Kerala Congress and T M Jacob stayed with Mani. However, many Mani-loyals like O Lukose and P C Joseph realigned with the Joseph led KC.

1989 – Joseph moved to LDF, while Mani stayed with UDF

1993 – Then minister for irrigation T M Jacob along with Johnny Nellore MLA, P M Mathew MLA, Mathew Stephen MLA, Oommen Jacob, Vakkanad Radhakrishnan and George Kunnappuzha severed ties with Kerala Congress (M) citing differences with K M Mani. The newly formed faction was called Kerala Congress (Jacob).

1997 – T V Abraham broke away from KC (J) and later joined KC (M).

2001 – Citing differences with Mani, P C Thomas, son of P C Chacko, quit the party and formed the Indian Federal Democratic Party (IFDP). In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Thomas defeated Mani’s son Jose K Mani.

2003 – P C George quit KC (which was under P J Joseph) and formed Kerala Congress (Secular).

2005– IFDP under P C Thomas joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by BJP.

2007 – Mani, P C George and Balakrishna Pillai unsuccessfully attempted to bring the various groups (from the time of the first split in 1979) back together under one umbrella.

2009 – Kerala Congress (Secular) under P C George, which split from the Joseph group, merged with the Kerala Congress (Mani). However, a section of the Kerala Congress (Secular) denied the merger and called themselves Kerala Congress (Socialist).

Kerala Congress (Socialist) dissolved when it merged with the Janata Dal (Secular).

2010 – Mani’s group and Joseph’s group merged. However, P C Thomas continued with LDF and formed yet another faction called Kerala Congress (Anti-merger).

2015 – Following differences with Mani over the infamous scam allegations on the Oommen Chandy led government, P C George quit KC (M).

K M Mani also faces a threat from the KC (J) which is in loggerheads with him over a supposed seat-sharing conflict and the autocratic manner in which KC(M) functions.