A representative meeting of the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) convened here last evening in the background of a looming political crisis produced predictably inevitable results.

This had come about after Finance Minister and Kerala Congress (M) supremo KM Mani, around whom much of the crisis evolved, had effectively punctured the bubble by speaking out his mind and asserting his right to present the state budget only the previous day.

RUNAWAY MAMMOTHS

Whatever remained on the probable agenda was finished off according to script, if decisions taken at the meeting and announced later by UDF convenor PP Thankachan are anything to go by.

These had essentially boiled down to taming two runaway mammoths from among the UDF crowd – government chief whip and acknowledged stormy petrel PC George and former minister and estranged UDF co-founder R Balakrishna Pillai.

Roles of these senior leaders – George is vice-chairman of the party led by Mani and Pillai being a political veteran rivalling Mani’s stature - in precipitating the crisis had become intertwined with the vicissitudes of the Finance Minister after a liquor baron released to the media CD transcripts purportedly containing clinching conversations.

The insinuation was that Mani had demanded and received crores of rupees from rival factions of bar owners who requested his good offices to restore a liquor policy whose amendments a few months ago had variously affected their fortunes.

George and Pillai were caught passing disparaging remarks on Mani and alluding to his likely role in the alleged bribery episode.

RIVAL FACTIONS

In retrospect, engineering a vertical divide among bar owners essentially by prompting one faction to rebut and speak against evidence produced by the other seems to be boomeranging on the government.

This only provoked the CD-wielding liquor baron to release another batch of recorded conversation in which a ‘dissident’ is quoted as threatening at a meeting of bar owners to expose four ministers for alleged bribery in a related context.

This had seemingly bothered the UDF no end; but it went into the meeting yesterday knowing only too well it could not afford to risk the status quo beyond a point without compromising its vulnerable majority in the State Assembly.

And this was exactly what turned out in the end – it sought to ‘admonish’ George and Pillai without saying it in so many words, and requested them to abide by the rules of the coalition game and uphold its dharma. George seemingly agreed subject to conditions but Pillai has reserved his right to air his views separately.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Left Democratic Front has been reduced to fighting to stay relevant, and has issued fresh threats of obstructing the ‘tainted’ Finance Minister from preventing the state budget for 205-16.

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