Left or Right? Jose K Mani's deft politics behind double entendre

KOTTAYAM: Chairman Jose K Mani's double entendre that 'wherever Kerala Congress (M) is, there will be government' comes with more than one meaning. While he reiterated that he would stand firmly with the Left Front, it is noteworthy that Jose K Mani confirmed that 'there are invitations from many places which he had not discussed yet'.

Although a press conference was announced, Jose quickly dismissed the rumours about the change of front from the verandah in front of the party's state committee office. It is learnt that Minister V.N. Vasavan made a quick intervention learning of the scheduled presser. Following the announcement that he would stand firmly with the Left Front, the cabinet also decided to allocate 25 cents of land in Thiruvananthapuram to the K.M. Mani Foundation.

Jose's absence from the LDF protest led by the Chief Minister in Thiruvananthapuram grabbed headlines. Rumours intensified after news emerged that Sonia Gandhi called Jose personally and suggested that he make a return to UDF. At this time, Minister Roshy Augustine and Pramod Narayanan MLA came up with Facebook posts valorizing LDF. After this, Jose also made a Facebook post reaffirming his allegiance to LDF, but it was unlike the direct ones shared by MLAs and was open to interpretation.

When Jose told the media personnel the Bible verse, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves’ and for your children, many found eerie similarities with what K.M. Mani, Jose’s father, used to say during the discussions on changing the front.