Marking an end to a long-drawn fight that began with the passing away of Kerala Congress (M) founder-chairman K.M. Mani, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has allocated the party’s election symbol, Two Leaves, to the faction led by Jose K. Mani.
In an order passed with a 2:1 majority, the Commission said that “the group led by Jose K. Mani is the Kerala Congress (Mani) and is entitled to use its name and its reserved symbol Two Leaves for the purposes of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.” It further added that Mr. Mani enjoyed majority support, both among the legislative as well as the organisational wings of the party.
Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Commission member Sushil Chandra passed the order along with a dissent note by the third member in the Commission Ashok Lavasa, who observed that neither of the factions could be considered as Kerala Congress (M) until the submission of further documents and their verification.
Since Pala bypoll
The dispute over the official symbol between the two factions began during the Pala byelection in September last year. The poll, necessitated by the death of the Pala legislator and KC(M) chairman K.M.Mani, had caused a split in the party along the factional lines led by Jose K. Mani and P.J. Joseph. During the byelection, Mr. Joseph had refused to allocate the party symbol to Jose Tom Pulikkunnel, the nominee of the Mani group. Following this, Mr. Pulikkunnel had to contest as a UDF Independent and was allotted ‘pineapple’ as his election symbol.
The ECI had arrived at a conclusion by taking into account the test of majority and numerical strength among party legislators and in organisational committees.
“On the basis of the affidavits submitted in support of the petitioner (Jose K. Mani) and the respondent (P.J. Joseph) by the members of the legislative and organisational wing of the party, it is clear that four out of seven members of the legislative wing support the faction led by the petitioner. On the other hand, three out of seven members of the legislative wing support the faction led by the respondent. In the organisational wing of the party, that is the State Committee of the Kerala Congress (Mani), affidavits of 179 undisputed members have been submitted in support of the petitioner while affidavits of 122 undisputed members have been submitted in support of the respondent,” the Commission observed.