The faction-ridden Congress party in Kerala, yet to recover from a humiliating defeat in the state elections two months back, suffered another jolt yesterday with a key ally deserting it.
Kerala Congress (M) leader KM Mani, who had to resign as finance minister last year following bribery charges, said his party was leaving the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) as the senior partner was trying to destabilise it.
The six-member KC (M), a UDF constituent of 32 years, will now sit as a separate bloc in the Legislative Assembly as the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) is not keen to accommodate the tainted leader for now.
With this, the UDF’s strength in the 140-member Assembly would be reduced to 41 — 18 of them Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) legislators and one Kerala Congress (Jacob). 
Reports suggest that he is also in touch with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to get his lawmaker son Jose K Mani inducted in the federal cabinet.
However, Mani, 82, said his approach to both the federal and state governments would be “constructive” and he was not joining any coalition.
He would instead concentrate on strengthening his party as an independent force in Kerala.
He alleged that some Congress leaders had spent money and energy to defeat KC (M) candidates in the last elections, and he had suffered enough humiliation from them.
But his party would continue to share power in the local governments.
“There was a battalion of Congress workers sent by senior leaders of the Congress party to defeat other KC (M) candidates and me,” he told reporters after a two-day meeting at Charalkunnu, a getaway on hills in Pathanamthitta.
“They got classes on how to defeat us and there were funds (flowing). We had enough of it, and we have reached a point of no return.”
Most of the middle-level Congress leaders reacted angrily saying he was speaking nonsense, and he should also end ties in the local governments instead of sharing power.
They accused him of always going after power.
Denying his charges, former chief minister Oommen Chandy, who had met Mani the other day in a last-ditch effort to dissuade him, said he was pained to see the senior leader going.
“We have never behaved with him badly. The decision at a time when people want democratic forces getting stronger is unfortunate,” he told reporters here.
“The things that he says now were not raised earlier. We had solved all issued that he brought up.”
Communist Party of India (Marxist) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the crash of UDF has begun, and parties like Revolutionary Socialist Party and Janata Dal 
(United) would soon follow suit, saying: “It’s time for them to disband.” 
KC (M)’s downfall began after CPI (M) started courting Mani to topple the Chandy dispensation and form an alternative government with him as the chief minister ever since Chandy assumed office.
But opposition within delayed a firm decision.
He was also the lone speaker from the rival camp at the CPI-M’s brainstorming session in Palakkad in 2013, and the two had been avoiding attacking each other.
His party argues that the Congress leader and home minister Ramesh Chennithala ordered a probe in 2014 into the allegations of a liquor baron that he took money promising to renew licenses of low bars to prevent the fall of the government surviving on a wafer-thin majority.
Soon, the Opposition staged a series of protests both in the Assembly and outside demanding his resignation and their attempt to force his resignation culminated in violence when Mani presented the annual budget in 2015.
The protests fizzled out after that.
He had to resign later that year after a high court judge cast suspicion on him while hearing a plea over the case.
Congress vice-president VD Satheeshan said the UDF would have fared better in the elections if he had left earlier.
“He has succumbed to the blackmailing (of the ruling communists) with the bar bribery case,” he said. 
“He should have gone before the elections. He has been a huge burden on us.”
Another young leader, TN Prathapan, described it as the beginning of the good days for the Congress party.
“We will now say everything in the open,” he said. “He should also end the alliance in the local governments. We don’t want to rule any civic body with them.”
Mani’s party, which joined the coalition in 1982, remained an ally even after the Kerala Congress broke up.
The former minister was a legislator since 1967 and presented 13 state budgets.
Senior Congress leader and UDF convener PP Thankachan said Mani should show political decency by ensuring that all the six legislators of his party resign “as they won with our support”.
LDF convener Vaikom Viswan said the UDF should be dissolved as its “dominant leader” — Chandy had always described Mani as a “dominant leader” — had quit.
Mani said the party would meet on August 14 to finalise its “future course of action”.
“We will function as a responsible opposition.”