Even as the bitter feud over the rejection of seat to P.J. Joseph threatens to snowball into a break up of the Kerala Congress (M), the faction led by party chairman K.M. Mani appears in no mood to give in to the pressure from within and outside.
Talking to media persons here on Wednesday, party vice chairman Jose K. Mani, MP, said there was no need to rethink on the selection of Thomas Chazhikkadan as the party candidate from Kottayam. ‘‘It was a well thought-out decision, based on discussions at all party forums. The party and its candidate are resolved to go ahead with the electioneering works,’’ he said.
Saying that the candidate selection to the Kottayam seat was carried out in a democratic way, Mr. Mani pointed out that the proposal to field Mr. Joseph as the party candidate had faced stiff opposition in the party’s steering committee.
He sought to shrug off a query regarding the discussions between Mr. Joseph and senior Congress leaders, saying that there was nothing unusual about it.
Meanwhile, Saji Manjakkadamban, State president, Youth Front (YF), joined the long list of dissident leaders when he came out in the open against the decision to field Mr. Chazhikkadan. Holding that the YF had stood in favour of the candidature of Mr. Joseph, he said that only the party would be held responsible if its candidate failed to get through in the hustings.
Accusing a few leaders having vested interests in sabotaging the decision to allot the seat to Mr. Joseph, Mr. Manjakkadamban turned down Mr. Jose K. Mani’s claim that the party’s steering committee raised a strong objection to its vice chairman’s candidature. ‘‘I, as a member of the steering committee, can affirm that it is not so,’’ he said.
The statement, however, appears to have set off another round of power struggle with YF general secretary Jayakrishnan Puthiyedath lodging a complaint against Mr. Manjakkadamban to the party chairman.