NCP chief Sharad Pawar removed Thomas K Thomas — one of its two MLAs in the state —from the party working committee citing indiscipline.
Published Aug 08, 2023 | 5:24 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 08, 2023 | 5:24 PM
Kuttanad MLA and NCP strongman Thomas K Thomas in a flood affected region of his constituency. Photo: Supplied
Hardly a month after senior leader Ajit Pawar pulled off a revolt in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) by joining hands with the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra, the party’s Kerala unit has also landed in a crisis with two of its leaders locked in a power struggle.
On Tuesday, 8 August, NCP chief Sharad Pawar removed Thomas K Thomas — one of its two MLAs in the state — from the party’s working committee citing indiscipline.
Thomas represents the Kuttanad Assembly constituency in the Alappuzha district.
“In view of the serious indiscipline being committed by you, openly defying the authority of the all India president and state president, and making irresponsible allegations against party members, and filing false complaints using your party position is discrediting the image of the party in public and in the Left Democratic Front. I do hereby remove you from the working committee of the Nationalist Congress Party,” Pawar said in a letter to Thomas.
The party high command had earlier expressed dissatisfaction over Thomas lodging a complaint with the state DGP alleging that there was a murder attempt on him by a local NCP leader, owing allegiance to the party’s state chief PC Chacko. Chacko rejected the “absurd” claim.
Despite being a numerically weak party in Kerala, the NCP is a part of the state’s ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) headed by the CPI(M). Its other MLA, AK Saseendran, holds the forest portfolio in the Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet.
The factional feud within the state unit of the party — which now threatens of an imminent vertical split — involves Saseendran and NCP state chief PC Chacko on one side, and the party’s second MLA Thomas K Thomas, an agro-businessman from Kuttanad, on the other. Both sides now wash dirty linen in public, making the whole state unit a laughing stock.
A K Saseendran, Forest Minister, Kerala. (KB Jayachandran)
With 65-year-old Thomas staking claim for a ministerial post for the remaining tenure of the LDF government and expressing a lack of confidence in Chacko and Saseendran, the power struggle within the junior coalition partner has started affecting the image of both the CPI(M) and LDF.
Despite repeated CPI(M) warnings, no NCP leader withdrew from the turf war over the ministerial post.
Interestingly, both Saseendran and Thomas favoured the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP in the power struggle in Maharashtra which saw the party split in its stronghold.
When contacted by South First before Thomas’s expulsion, both MLAs claimed that they were in touch with national leadership, but the Maharashtra situation was delaying any speedy intervention in Kerala.
Praful Patel, who went with Ajit Pawar to the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance, was the contact point for Kerala leaders in the united NCP.
After Patel, Pawar has not named any leader as in-charge of Kerala.
It was not clear if Thomas would remain with the Sharad Pawar faction after his expulsion. Incidentally, the BJP, or the NDA, currently has no MLA in the state Assembly.
Among the NCP leaders in Kerala, Chacko is Pawar’s trusted lieutenant. The former Congress leader is now part of the NCP’s national leadership.
But Chacko’s clout over Pawar did not deter Thomas from accusing the former of being a fortune seeker and opportunist who landed recently in the NCP from the Congress to ruin the state unit.
Accusing Saseendran of being Chacko’s conscience keeper, Thomas said he was confident the LDF would soon make him a minister.
While Saseendran and Chacko insisted on initiating strong disciplinary measures against Thomas, including expulsion from the party, the Kuttanad strongman claimed the backing of the LDF and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Known for praising Vijayan unabashedly in the Assembly, Thomas said he enjoyed the confidence of the chief minister, who knew how he retained Kuttanad for the LDF despite facing a strong challenge from the Congress-led Opposition UDF.
Thomas filed a complaint with the state police chief saying rivals in his party were trying to eliminate him.
In the complaint, Thomas mentioned a murder attempt plotted by a pro-Chacko NCP leader from his home district, Alappuzha.
PC Chacko.
Saseendran told the media that Thomas’s allegations were baseless and far from the truth. He said Chacko had sought the NCP national leadership’s quick intervention to save the state unit from further damage.
Thomas said in the complaint that the driver who had worked for him earlier had plotted the murder along with a national council member of the party, Reji Cheriyan.
“The plan was to push me into the water when my car reached the interior region of Kuttanad on my way back from Thiruvananthapuram,” he alleged.
“The intention was to facilitate a by-poll in Kuttanad so that this NCP leader from Alappuzha could contest from there,” he claimed in the petition. The MLA wrote in the complaint that he came to know about this conspiracy when the driver revealed it to his assistant under the influence of alcohol.
Meanwhile, Cheriyan’s advocate Mujeeb Rehuman A told the media that the allegations were baseless and said they were raised because Thomas felt threatened of his place in the party.
“We will be sending an advocate notice to Thomas K Thomas today (Tuesday). We will also be filing civil and criminal defamation cases against him over the baseless allegations that he had raised,” Rehuman said.
Brother of the late NCP leader and Kerala minister Thomas Chandy, Thomas K Thomas was a political novice when he became the NCP candidate in the Kuttanad constituency in the 2021 Kerala Assembly elections. The party chose him as the successor of his late brother, a minister in the first Vijayan government.
Thomas, whose education was only up to the school level, is a tourism promoter and an investor in the agricultural business.
His total declared assets are ₹4.3 crore, including ₹81.5 lakh in moveable assets and ₹3.5 crore as immovable assets.
To counter the allegations against him, Thomas accused Saseendran of failing to address the human-animal conflicts that have reached an alarming proportion in the hilly regions of Kerala.
He told South First that the Forest Department was the worst-performing ministry of the Vijayan government.
Thomas said Chacko has been intimidating party workers citing his clout with the national leadership and turning them against him. The MLA said he has been controlling the whole NCP in Kuttanad and Alappuzha, and the party’s influence was nominal everywhere else.
If the turf war continues, there is a chance that the CPI(M) will take over the Forest Department and allow the two MLAs to continue with the front as leaders of different groups.
Local political compulsions prevent Saseendran and Thomas from joining the Congress or the UDF.
