THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: No other House speaker, perhaps, would have exercised his casting vote eight times in 80 days to keep a state government in office like
AC Jose, Congress MLA, in the eighties.
This saving act of Jose - who presided over the Kerala assembly in 1981-82 with United Democratic Front and the Left Democratic Front facing a 70-70 tie - won him the nick name 'Always Casting Jose' till the K Karunakaran government remitted office.
Jose had to cast the first vote to save the government from a no-confidence motion and the next was to pass motion of thanks to the governor's address.
This short-lived government was the by-product of a huge political churning that the state witnessed in 1981 following the fall of the Left government under EK Nayanar.
The Nayanar government had to quit when the Congress (S) having 22 MLAs (including a nominated Anglo-Indian MLA) withdrew support.
Kerala Congress (M) having eight MLAs followed suit. One of the six RSP MLAs, Kadavoor Sivadasan, also withdrew support in October, 1981, causing the immediate fall of the LDF government.
The state came under President's rule as different parties engaged in negotiations to form the government. Congress (S) had split with six MLAs forming another group in protest against AK Antony's decision to support his bete noire Karunakaran, who had aligned with Indira Gandhi when the party split in Kerala.
The unexpected split in Congress (S) became a hurdle to Karunakaran's plans.
But Karunakaran was unfazed and the new front having 67 MLAs (including Anglo-Indian nominee Stephan Padua) staked claim to form the next government on December 24, 1981. Interestingly, at that point LDF had 68 MLAs, including speaker AP Kurian. After the swearing in, the first thing Karunakaran did was to ensure the support of independent KK Nair. Next, he split Janata Party and obtained the support of three of its MLAs. The magic figure of 71 was thus reached.
But with the speaker and deputy speaker quitting, the assembly had to elect a new speaker. Congress (A) leader AC Jose was elected speaker. With the seat positions tied at 70-70, the casting vote of speaker Jose was the sole thread on which the government hung on to power.
Eventually, Karunakaran had to resign on March 17, 1982, when Kerala Congress (M) MLA Lonappan Nambadan, who had nurtured a grudge ever since the party decided to support UDF, withdrew his support.