ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Legal victory puts Congress in a fix

D Jose in Trivandrum

Having won the legal battle easily, the Congress leadership in Kerala is in a fix over capturing the Payyavur panchayat (council).

The village has been in the news since September 1 when the party launched an agitation against the Left Democratic Front, the alliance ruling Kerala, for scuttling its no-confidence motion against the Marxist president of the council, T M Joshi.

The Congress camp is worried because the Kerala Local Bodies (Prohibition of Defection) Ordinance, promulgated following its agitation, seeks to disqualify members who defect and debar them from contesting elections for six years.

Three of the six members in the eleven-member council supporting the Congress no-confidence motion are sure to lose their membership since they had defected from the ruling LDF to the Congress-led United Democratic Front.

Will those three members sacrifice their position and six years of their political career is the question worrying the state Congress leadership.

Preparations have already begun for convening the council to reconsider the no-confidence motion in accordance with Monday's order of a division bench of the Kerala high court.

The court quashed the Cannanore panchayat deputy director's order rejecting the no-confidence motion on September 1 for want of quorum and directed the government to take up the motion within 15 days from December 21.

The ruling LDF is obviously not keen on appealing against the order since the ordinance, which has taken retrospective effect from October 1995, takes care of its interests. The government has, however, challenged an earlier verdict of the court holding the chief secretary and some other officials guilty of contempt for not carrying out its order to provide protection to the six UDF members to attend the council's meeting.

Meanwhile, tension is building up in the village with both sides preparing for a battle of wits. Though a repeat of the September 1 incident (when the six UDF members were detained at the local police station because of a riotous situation outside the council office) is not anticipated, both camps are preparing their rank and file to consolidate their position.

The Congress leadership is still unsure about the present line of thinking of the three defectors who will be the losers if they vote for the no-confidence motion.

Already two cases are pending against them before the Election Commission for defecting from the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led front to the UDF. One was filed before the ordinance was promulgated, the other after.

The Congress strategy seems to be to have the three members vote for the motion, so that they are disqualified and can then challenge the ordinance in court.

K C Joseph, member of the legislative assembly from Irikkur, the constituency of which Payyavur is a part, told Rediff On The NeT that the party's plan is to go straight to the Supreme Court against the ordinance.

Joseph, who started the agitation that lasted nearly two months, says application of the ordinance with retrospective effect is ill motivated. The ordinance, which was promulgated following a persistent demand from the Congress in general and leader of the opposition A K Antony in particular, banned defections with effect from October 2, 1995, when the local bodies were constituted under the Kerala Panchayat and Municipalities Act.

Congressmen also object to the provision under which a member elected to a council as candidate of one party or coalition will invite disqualification if he resigns from the party/coalition or defies its whip during a vote.

They also do not agree with the punitive clause in the ordinance. "The punishment is two-fold for the same offence. The member is disqualified and also debarred from contesting elections for six years. This is not in keeping with the Constitution," a Congressman said.

According to him, the ordinance also differs with the Constitution on the status of an independent member. The Congress is, therefore, hopeful of getting it quashed in the Supreme Court, thus reviving the membership of the three defectors.

Meanwhile, the CPI-M has launched a political campaign in the district to draw people's attention to the question of defections. The party's district secretary has already demanded the resignation of the three members who had won their seats in alliance with the LDF. He said the party would start an agitation to this end.

The strategy obviously is to keep the council under Marxist control. If the three members resign, the Congress will be reduced to just three members in a house of 11. The no-trust move will then fail.

Naturally, the Congress is not keen to concede the demand. It argues that though the three members contested the election in alliance with the LDF, they were originally members of the Congress and had returned to it after the differences that had forced them to part ways had been ironed out.

Senior Congressman Oommen Chandy warned party workers not to become complacent with their legal victory. He said the Payyavur agitation was just the beginning of a "massive struggle" against the "fascist and anti-democratic actions" of the CPI-M, which he said has become intolerant of political dissent.

Tell us what you think of this report