Congress walks into rebel trap, almost loses cooperative bank in East Eleri

Kasaragod: The much-anticipated merger of East Eleri rebels with the Congress fell apart as the rebel leader James Panthamakkal attempted a "treacherous" takeover of the party-controlled service cooperative bank in the panchayat on Tuesday.

The Democratic Development Front (DDF), the rebel group which controls the hill panchayat, almost succeeded in pocketing the bank, leaving the Congress workers stunned and seething.

The merger event scheduled on November 20 will not happen now, said Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) member and Congress leader from the panchayat Shanthamma Philip. "I am not able to believe what he (Panthamakkal) did. For all the sacrifices we made, he chose to betray the party," she said.

On November 3, Congress state president K Sudhakaran announced the merger of the DDF with the party and welcomed panchayat president Panthamakkal and six rebel panchayat members at the party's headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram.

Weeks before the announcement, Congress spaces on social media were agog with congratulatory messages welcoming the rebels back.

As part of the merger deal, the Congress agreed to give four seats on the 13-member board of directors of East Eleri Service Cooperative Bank to the DDF, Sudhakaran said that day.

The Congress kept eight seats for itself and one for ally Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

The election was on November 12, and the Congress kept its end of the bargain.

On November 15, on the day to elect the president of the bank, the Congress nominated P M Mathew Padinjarel for the top post. He was the vice-president in the previous term.

The Congress was expecting an easy day out. But what it did not take into account was that of the eight party-backed directors on the board, three were loyal to Simon Pallathukuzhi, a former district Congress general secretary, who relentlessly worked to get James Panthamakkal and other rebels back into the Congress.

The three directors are Chacko E P Elanjimattathil, Shiju Antony Kizhuthara, and Mary C A Murikkananikkal.

With the support of James Panthamakkal, Simon Pallathukuzhi propped up Chacko Elanjimattathil for the post of president. Chacko Elanjimattathil was set to win the president's post with seven votes. "In a democracy, a person with the highest votes should win," Panathamakkal said in defence of his action.

But one of DDF's directors, Raju Puthiyidath, cast an invalid vote and both Mathew and Chacko were even-steven with six votes each. The presiding officer decided to break the tie by drawing lots. And luck favoured Congress's official candidate Mathew Padinjarel.

With DDF losing out in the presidential election, it fielded its director Jesy Thomas for the post of vice-president and won the election.

Simon Pallathukuzhi said the merger between the Congress and the DDF happened on November 12, the day the directors' election to the bank was held. "So today, there were no DDF directors. It was an election among Congress directors of the bank," he said on Tuesday.

It was hard for the Congress to buy the argument. As a compromise, Simon said he suggested that Chacko be allowed to be the president for the first two years and Mathew can be at the helm for the remaining three years.

The Congress leaders felt the rebels played them and decided to cancel the proposed merger event with the DDF on Sunday (November 21). East Eleri Congress mandalam president George Karimadam put out a message on social media saying that the proposed merger of the DDF with the Congress has been put on hold.

'DDF did not have the votes to win bank election'

Shanthama Philip, district president of the Mahila Congress, said the DDF did not have the votes to get even one director elected to the board of the bank. "It got four seats on the board of directors because of the merger deal. So it should not talk of democracy," she said.

In the bank election held in 2017, the rebels put up a spirited fight. Its confidence stemmed from the panchayat election held in 2015. In the 16-member panchayat board, the DDF won 10 seats and the UDF was reduced to one member, down from 13 in 2010.

Despite the powerful show in the panchayat election, the DDF could not win one seat on the board of directors of the East Eleri Service Cooperative Bank. "It clearly meant that people who voted for the DDF in the panchayat election did not want the rebels to control the bank," said Santhamma Philip, who was the president of the panchayat from 2005 to 2010.

In 2022, the DDF is much weaker. The DDF has seven seats in the panchayat and is controlling the panchayat with the support of the LDF. The Congress increased its tally to seven in 2020.

So Congress leaders suspect James Panthamakkal plotted with a section of Congress led by Simon Pallathukuzhi to wrest control of the bank. "The merger talk could have been a treacherous plan," she said.

To be sure, James Panthamakkal had agreed to step down as the president of the panchayat in return for the four seats on the board of directors of the bank.

If the merger fails, the DDF would keep the president's post and also sit at the cooperative bank's high table.