Will a virtually jobless A K Antony once again pitch his tent in state politics? 

There was no love lost between A K Antony and late K Karunakaran, two stalwarts of the Congress Party in Kerala. When the factions led by them threatened to break the party apart, the party High Command found a way out. When Karuanakaran was in power in Kerala, Antony would be called to Delhi and given a post in the Central Government or AICC. And when, by political compulsions, the leadership mantle fell on Antony either as Chief Minister or party state President, Karunakaran would be accommodated in Delhi.

This balancing act by the party High Command helped to avoid a confrontation between the two in Kerala and reign in factionalism in the party.

When Karunkaran died in December 2010, Antony was the Union Defence Minister, a post he held for eight years consecutively from 2006 till the Manmohan Singh Government bowed out of office in 2014.

Antony’s long stint with the Central Government and Karunakaran’s demise ended the three decade-long monopoly of the Antony-Karunakaran duo and necessitated a political churning in Kerala, which threw up the present Chief Minister Oommen Chandy as the unchallenged party supremo in Kerala.

After the formation of the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre, Antony is virtually jobless. He has no formal role to play in Kerala and his services are dispensable in Delhi too, at least for the time being. Since he can’t speak Hindi, he was not asked by the party High Command to campaign for the Assembly polls in Bihar.

The Oommen Chandy Government is due to complete its tenure by the middle of next year and the question doing the rounds is: Will Antony once again pitch his tent in state politics and run for Chief Ministership in 2016?

When Antony said the other day that it has become unsafe to live in the North(referring to Dadri and similar incidents), it was interpreted by some as Antony’s intention to become active in the South (meaning Kerala politics).

Antony himself scotched rumours in this regard by asserting that his days in state politics are over and that there are powerful leaders like Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala and V M Sudheeran to lead the party and the Government in the state.

But many in the party don’t take Antony’s observation seriously. Because, the same Antony, after his brief stint as Chief Minister ended in 1996, had then stated that he won’t run for Chief Ministership again, but he once again became Chief Minister in 2001 and could not complete his tenure like his previous two terms.

Again, Antony was in favour of fixing a retirement age for politicians, but even at the age of 75, he has no intention to quit active politics. So political observers are keenly watching what Antony really has up his sleeves!

Antony still remains the most charismatic politician in Kerala by virtue of his clean track record and commitment to principled politics. But his reentry into active politics in the state could upset the carefully crafted power equations in the party.

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