Four Kasaragod panchayat members disqualified under Anti-defection law

On Tuesday (July 2), the State Election Commissioner disqualified four independent members of the East Eleri Grama Panchayat. These members, who had contested with the Revolutionary Marxist Party’s (RMP) ‘football’ symbol, defied the party’s directive to support the Congress’s presidential candidate in December 2020. The disqualified members include Jiji Thomas, Detty Francis, Vineeth T Joseph, and Gigi P J.

The disqualification ruling, delivered by SEC A. Shajahan, came in response to a petition filed by the current panchayat president Joseph Mutholil in January 2021. This action follows a complex political scenario in the local body elections, where a splinter group from Congress, known as the Democratic Development Front (DDF), had dominated the panchayat with support from the CPM. In the 2020 elections, the DDF and Congress each secured seven seats, with the CPM winning two.

Despite RMP’s directive for four DDF members to support Congress’s Joseph Mutholil for the president’s post, they voted for Panthammakkal of the DDF, who ultimately won with CPM’s backing. In a surprising turn of events in November 2022, Panthammakkal’s faction joined forces with Congress, causing internal conflict within the official party.