Sending a clear signal that all is not well in the Kerala Congress (M), the spat between party chairman K.M. Mani and vice chairman P.C. George took a turn for the worse with the latter airing his views on Mr. Mani’s resignation and the chairman countering it openly.
The verbal battle between the two was triggered by Mr. George who called media persons to his Erattupetta house on Sunday and aired his view that Mr. Mani should have rendered his resignation much earlier when the controversy over bar licence bribery arose. Then there was enough time to prove his innocence and return to the Cabinet as a clean politician.
That opportunity was lost mainly because of the advice of those surrounding Mr. Mani, he alleged. At least 50 per cent of these people never spoke openly. They would only air the views their leaders would like to hear. He reiterated his stance that the bar licence controversy had put the party in disgrace and it has been pushed to the deep sea, he said The repeated allegations had created lack of trust among the people. If the image persisted, it would impact the electoral outcome during the local body elections and at the next Assembly election, Mr. George said and added that Mr. Mani had the responsibility to say who was responsible for the present plight of the party.
However, speaking to media persons who met him later, Mr. Mani said the party was neither in deep sea not in the heaven, but firmly had its feet on earth. Mr. Mani who had said on Saturday that the bar licence controversy was not to be taken up in the party forum any more, changed his mind and said if need arose, it could be taken up any time in party forums.
He pointed out that his decision not to tender resignation was not a personal one, but was based on a party decision. The decision was taken at a meeting in which Mr. George was also present, he said. The party knew about the clean politics he had championed though 50 years of his political career.
