Finally, PC Thomas leaves NDA, returns 'home'

Thiruvananthapuram, March 17 It's a homecoming that former NDA Union Minister P.C. Thomas was wanting for a while and on Wednesday he is set to return to the Congress-led UDF.

The Kerala Congress (M) faction led by P.J. Joseph and P.C. Thomas's party are going to merge and will now be known as the Kerala Congress, and Thomas said this will happen later on Wednesday at Kaduthurthi in Kottayam at an election rally of Mons Joseph, sitting legislator, seeking re-election from the same seat.

"We have decided to become one, and we will be known as the Kerala Congress, a party with no bracket. I decided to leave the NDA as our party, which was given four seats in the 2016 Assembly polls was not given even a single seat, despite being an ally. They had asked me to contest from Pala, but since I had personal issues and decided not to contest. Do not know if that's why we were not given a single seat," said Thomas.

In the political scenario of Kerala, at the moment, there are half a dozen Kerala Congress parties which are named after various leaders and written in brackets.

Thomas's party Kerala Congress last month had returned to be part of the BJP-led NDA and was seen among the leaders ahead of the statewide yatra of state BJP president K.Surendran.

But things did not go as Thomas had wished, and he has now decided to opt out of the NDA.

The reason why Joseph decided to take Thomas along is because, despite repeated legal efforts to get the 'two leaves' symbol, which has been allotted to the faction of the Kerala Congress (M) led by Jose K. Mani, whose party is now an ally of the CPI-M led Left Democratic Front, Joseph was left stranded, after various courts ruled in favour of Jose K.Mani, who was given the 'two leaves' symbol.

"Thomas is a senior leader and a member of the Kerala Congress family, as he is the son of our founder P.T. Chacko. We have had a few rounds of discussions and things have fallen in place and that's how the decision to merge was taken. Thomas will be given a key post in the new party set up," said Mons Joseph.

Thomas has been representing the Muvattupuzha Lok Sabha constituency from 1989 to 2009.

In 2003, he became an Union Minister of State for Law in the Vajpayee cabinet and in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls he won as an NDA candidate from his home turf.

But after 2009, he has been moving from one political front to the other, and finally on Wednesday, he is all set to return to his original fold and thereby he will now be a UDF leader.

( With inputs from IANS )