Kerala Congress – A Classical Case Study of Alphabet Politics

Kerala Congress parties should’ve been for Kerala what Dravidian parties are for Tamilnadu. Even though it followed almost the same pattern of ameoba replication, It never could grow as big, beyond Central Travancore. Even though the party has its presence amongst almost all castes in Kerala, this party is considered and belonged predominantly to Syrian Christians.

K. M. Mani

This particular regional party is a classical case study for Indian party politics – the alphabet politics. Since it’s inception in 1964, the party has seen many splits. More than ideological differences, individual interests of leaders and external influences has contributed more to it. K. M. Mani, one of it’s leaders had made this interesting observation that party has actually grown strong through its splits. “A party that splits as it grows, and grows as it splits.” To an extend this must be true. In normal cases. when a party splits, it’s enemy should get benefited. But in case of Kerala Congress, every time it splits, both the parties will get a representation in the cabinet, and the overall count of cabinet representation will go up, even if the no of MLAs remains the same or less.

P. J. Joseph

Kerala Congress, itself was a result of a split in Indian National Congress. In 1964, the party was formed under the Leadership of K. M. George. Coming years, the Kerala Congress has suffered severe divisions and several parallel outfits have emerged, all claiming the name Kerala Congress.

Balakrishna Pillai

The first split came in 1979 by K. M. Mani forming Kerala Congress (M). Rest of the leaders followed the trend: Kerala Congress (B) by R. Balakrishna Pillai, Kerala Congress (Jacob) by T. M. Jacob, Kerala Congress (Joseph) by P. J. Joseph, Kerala Congress (Secular) by P. C. George, Kerala Congress (Socialist) by Sunny Thomas and Indian Federal Democratic Party by P. C. Thomas. IFDP was the first party to move out of the LDF/UDF and joined hand on hand with BJP, and gave NDA its first breakthrough in Kerala.

T. M. Jacob

Kerala Congress (Secular) which split from Joseph group, later merged with Mani group. IFDP which split from Mani group, later merged with Joseph group. The Socialist group, split from Secular group, later merged with Janata Dal (S) [The Janata Dal have a similar long and confusing split-merge history at national level]. A group of IFDP retains it’s own cadre from under M. P. George. Oh. Bloody Confusing! Somone who makes a chart of Kerala Congress history will sweat for sure.

P. C. Thomas

Yesterday, P. J. Joseph announced the merger of Joseph group with Mani group. And as expected a rebel group under P. C. Thomas (the old IFDP group) reacted, and expelled Joseph from Joseph group. Probably they will be known as Kerala Congress (Thomas), as there is one IFDP, or they might merge with IFDP or any of the existing groups.

The dream of an United Kerala Congress is still far away, as you get couple more new groups with every merger.

Here is an interesting list of Indian National Congress breakaway parties.