Dissident Kerala Congress leader to campaign for LDF
Ahead of the Thrikkakara byelection, KV Thomas alleges that there has been an atempt to kick him out of the party since 2018
Former federal minister and senior Congress leader KV Thomas is backing the ruling Let Democratic Front (LDF) candidate in the upcoming by-election.
The Thrikkakara assembly constituency is going to poll on May 31 in the first popularity test for the LDF which came to power for the second consecutive term last year.
The LDF has fielded a political novice, Dr Joe Joseph, a cardiac surgeon, against Congress party’s Uma Thomas, the wife of PT Thomas who died recently, to defend his constituency.
“I’ll atend Thursday’s LDF campaign meeting along with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and I’ll be campaigning for Dr Joseph the following days,” he told reporters in Kochi.
“I’ll canvass votes for him like the way I used to do as a candidate here (in Ernakulam district). But I’ll continue to be a Congressman.”
Thomas, 75, was a lawmaker from Ernakulam from 1984 to 1996 and then served two terms as a legislator and was a member of the ministry headed by Antony (2001-04).
From 2009 to 2019 he was again elected to the parliament from the district and was also the federal agriculture minister (independent charge) from 2009-14.
The LDF expected the former college teacher with strong connections, especially among his Latin Catholic community, to bring votes and wrest the seat.
Thomas, a member of the All India Congress Commitee, has been at loggerheads with the party’s state leadership which refused to field him in the last parliamentary elections.
He has since been lobbying for a ticket to the state legislative assembly which also the party ignored.
Recently, he defied the party diktat and atended a meeting of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) that leads the LDF and extended his support for its “development agenda.”
He said he was a person who always took a stand for the infrastructure development of the state and in Thrikkakara also his position was the same. “The success or failure of the Let candidate would not make any change in my pro-development stand,” he said.
“Uma Thomas is close to our family and she had called us ater her nomination. We promised to visit her but no request came from the party.”
He alleged that there had been a deliberate atempt to sideline and kick him out of the party since 2018.
“I’ll remain a Congressman and I will neither quit the party nor join any other one. I am taking part in the LDF’S poll campaign also as a Congressman,” he said.
“Those who indulge in the social media campaign against me are a paid team led by certain leaders in Kerala. Let them expel me from the party if they can.”
Kerala Pradesh Congress Commitee (KPCC) had removed him from its political affairs commitee and the executive ater he atended the CPI-M conclave in Kannur last month.
KPCC president K Sudhakaran took the light of his challenge to expel him from the party saying they did not atach much importance to him.
“Let him say whatever he wants. For us, he is not in the Congress party now and let him go wherever he wants. We don’t have to say it again and again,” Sudhakaran said.
“The AICC has served him with a show-cause notice and it will make a decision soon. We cannot supersede the AICC.”
The LDF’S major campaign point is its controversial semi-high-speed Silverline rail project which Thomas supports and Congress opposes citing its ecological and financial impact.
The AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said “his claim of being a Congressman and campaigning for the LDF is funny” and strong action against him would follow.