Jose K. Mani emerges as star in Kerala elections

By Sanu V. George Thiruvananthapuram, March 10 : Politics is the art of the impossible, is a statement that can be attributed to Jose K.Mani, who for the CPI-M till a few months ago was in the untouchable category because of the long standing feud that the ruling party in Kerala had with his father, K.M.Mani.
K.M. Mani represented the Pala Assembly seat in Kottayam from 1967 till he died in 2019. The CPI-M had one of the most bitter feuds, especially during 2011-15 when he had to eventually quit as Kerala Finance Minister in the now infamous bar scam bribery case, which the CPI-M had raised and succeeded in booting him out as a minister.
But as is said anything in politics is possible, the CPI-M soon shunned its hatred towards Mani. Had it not been because of the strong stand taken by the CPI, the second biggest ally in the Left, Mani would have become their ally much earlier.
However, after the death of K.M. Mani in 2019, CPI-M found an opportunity in the internal feud of the Kerala Congress (Mani). It managed to get K.M. Mani’s son Jose K.Mani’s faction to ally with the Left Democratic Front last year.
Things turned for the better for Jose K.Mani, when he was able to win a few crucial seats in the December local body polls in Kottayam district and since then he has become the ‘new darling’ of the CPI-M. In the past few days, when it came to the Assembly seat distribution not only was he given 13 seats to contest, the CPI-M flexed its muscles and gave him two seats — Pala which was held by another Left ally-NCP and Ranni — a seat of the CPI-M held by its seasoned party worker Raju Abraham.
Given the new found likeness that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has towards Jose K.Mani, he had no qualms when sitting Left Front legislator, Mani C.Kappen belonging to the NCP an ally of the Left, walked out and joined the Congress-led UDF.