The Kerala Congress (Jacob) looks to be hurtling down the path of its senior UDF partner Kerala Congress (Mani). At a time when the Indian National Congress is finding it virtually impossible to manage the power struggle within the KC(M), long simmering ego tussles within its smaller Kerala Congress ally has burst out into the open. Internal squabble split KC(J) on Friday.

While KC(J) chairman Johnny Nellore has decided to merge with KC (M) led by P J Joseph, party leader and its sole MLA Anoop Jacob has vehemently opposed the merger. Both the KC(J) factions, one led by Nellore and the other by Anoop, has convened separate meetings on Friday to thrash out the future course of action.

At the Nellore faction's meet, the KC(J) chairman went to the extent of accusing Anoop Jacob of pocketing money from outside sources to split the party. He said that it was Anoop who had first mooted the idea of a merger with the Joseph faction of KC(M). “He had initiated the talks without even informing me,” Nellore said.

Anoop Jacob, on the other hand, said there was no split in the party. “If a group of individuals had decided to join any other party, it is merely personal. The party has nothing to do with it, and it cannot be interpreted as if there was a split in the party,” Anoop Jacob said after the party's State Committee meeting in Kochi on Friday.

Anoop also said the political situation did not warrant a merger. “This was the reading in the party and what the party's high-power committee had decided. This has now been ratified by the state committee. It was a decision taken jointly by the party,” Anoop said. Also, he said the meeting of the KC(J) office-bearers on February 7 had also strongly opposed the merger. “That decision stays,” he said.

“Anti-party” was how Anoop termed Nellore's action. He said a disciplinary committee has been constituted to look into the issue. “The committee will take note of all that happened in the party in the past few days and action would be taken on the basis of the committee's report,” Anoop said.

A split in the KC(J) always seemed round the corner. Before the 2016 Assembly elections, when the UDF denied Nellore a chance to contest from Angamaly, he had raised the banner of revolt. He then said the UDF was planning to do away with KC(J). “Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had given us an assurance that the party will be given another seat too. Now we feel humiliated,” Nellore had said.

Then, hinting at a possible desertion, Nellore had said that the party did not consider the CPM or even the BJP untouchable. The UDF leadership then promptly intervened to defuse the situation. Anoop, too, was staunchly against doing anything that would hurt UDF's chances.

Now, sources say Nellore's latest move is an attempt to somehow secure the UDF candidature for the Kuttanad Assembly seat that had fallen vacant with the death of Thomas Chandy. Within the UDF, Kuttanad is traditionally reserved for the KC(M). In the 2016 polls, Chandy had beaten KC(M)'s Adv Jacob to win the seat.

Sources within the Anoop camp say that Nellore is banking on P J Joseph to announce Nellore as the UDF candidate for Kuttanad. Nellore, however, has denied that he had an eye for the Kuttanad seat. His camp say that Anoop went against the merger after P J Joseph refused to grant him the position of deputy leader.