Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

KC(Jacob) gets fresh lease of political life

T.M. Jacob back in UDF fold

Thiruvananthapuram: The United Democratic Front’s (UDF) decision to re-admit the Kerala Congress (Jacob) into its fold has revived the fortunes of its leader T.M. Jacob, who has been in the political wild for some time.

Mr. Jacob had been knocking on the doors of the UDF ever since he decided to revive his party after a misadventure of merging it with the Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran).

The Kerala Congress (Mani) and its leader K M Mani were the only stumbling block. Mr. Mani had all long opposed Mr. Jacob’s entry and he could do so with ease in view of his emergence as the second largest party in the UDF since the last Assembly elections.

With various Kerala Congress streams deciding to forge a common platform, Mr. Mani reduced the tone and tenor of his opposition if only to take the grand design of a merger of all Kerala Congress streams under his leadership.

Mr. Mani and Mr. Jacob were together till the two split in the middle 1990s. All through the years, Mr. Jacob and the Kerala Congress(B) of R Balakrishna Pillai continued to be a rash in Mr. Mani’s eye.

The fortunes of Mr. Jacob and Mr. Pillai took a dip with the change of guard in the Congress and the advent of Oommen Chandy at the helm of affairs. Both the leaders were not included in the Chandy Cabinet and it was only a matter of time that they quit the UDF.

Mr. Pillai did not commit the mistake that Mr. Jacob committed – of merging his party.

He retained his identity, making it smoother for him to return to the UDF fold. The latter was forced to revive his party when the DIC(K) took the decision to join the Nationalist Congress Party.

Mr. Jacob realised that he could not survive without an alliance with the UDF, particularly the Congress in areas where his party has a presence.

Mr. Mani of course has put a rider to the entire process of re-admitting Mr. Jacob. At the UDF meeting the other day, he said his party had not officially discussed the issue and, therefore, needed more time.

Seniors like Mr. Pillai felt that an early decision should be forthcoming and Mr. Jacob should be invited to the next UDF High Power Meeting on January 24.

Mr. Jacob’s return should be read along with that of Mr. Karunakaran’s to the Congress. It would signal the revival of the anti-communist platform of the 1980s.

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