Muted dissonance in LDF over NCP’s Thomas K. Thomas’ induction into Kerala Cabinet spills into the open

Muted dissonance in the ruling LDF in Kerala over supplanting NCP-SP leader . Saseendran in Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet with party’s legislator from Kuttanad, Thomas K. Thomas, spill into the public domain

Allegedly “muted dissonance” in the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala over supplanting Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) [NCP-SP] leader and Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran in the Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet with the party’s legislator from Kuttanad, Thomas K. Thomas, appeared to spill rancorously into the public domain on Friday (October 25, 2024). 

Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP-Leninist) leader Kovoor Kunjumon, MLA, appeared to pull the curtains back on the “secret rumblings” in the LDF and, possibly, the “real political cause” for the delay in inducting Mr. Thomas into the Cabinet despite Mr. Sharad Pawar’s recommendation to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Mr. Kunjumon disclosed to reporters that Mr. Vijayan had queried him in private about an alleged move by Mr. Thomas to persuade two LDF legislators to align themselves with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-Ajit Pawar faction), an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Maharashtra. 

Mr. Kunjumon said that Mr. Vijayan had summoned him to the government guest house in Kottarakara in mid-October and enquired whether the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, had approached him and Janathipathya Kerala Congress leader Antony Raju, MLA, through Mr. Thomas. 

Mr. Kunjumon appeared to confirm reports that Mr. Vijayan had reported the BJP ally’s “tactical gambit” to the Communist Party of India (Marxist)‘s State Secretariat, supposedly to explain the latter’s reluctance to induct Mr. Thomas in the Cabinet despite Mr. Sharad Pawar’s recommendation.

The controversy also appeared to have raised questions about the LDF’s imperviousness to overtures from the BJP-led alliance and cast aspersions on the ruling front’s almost cult-like cohesion in the run-up to the bypolls in Chelakkara and Palakkad Assembly constituencies and the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat.

Mr. Kunjumon’s disclosure has also pushed to the fore the mystery surrounding how President Droupadi Murumu received a vote from the electoral college comprising members of the Kerala Legislative Assembly.