Delhi HC stays Election Commission's symbol allotment to Jose K. Mani faction

Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram: The Delhi High Court on Friday stayed, for a month, the Election Commission's order allotting the Kerala Congress-Mani's 'two leaves' symbol to the faction led by Jose K. Mani.

The stay was granted after P.J. Joseph, who leads the other faction, approached the court, which has now posted the case for further hearing on October 1.

Reacting to the court order, a beaming Joseph said that truth will always triumph.

"God is with us. The EC gave its verdict with two people supporting the handing over the symbol to Jose K. Mani, while one member strongly opposed it. Moreover, two lower courts in Kerala also had ruled against him and that verdict was never challenged," he said.

N. Jayaraj, a legislator attached to the Jose Mani faction, said that he has come to know about the stay and their party will take the call after going through the details of the court order.

The erstwhile Kerala Congress-Mani, founded by Jose Mani's father K.M. Mani saw a rift ever since he passed away last year, with one faction led by Jose Mani and the other by veteran Joseph.

On August 31, the EC, after going through the rival factions claims, allotted the party symbol to Jose Mani, thus recognising his faction as the original Kerala Congress-Mani.

While Joseph has three legislators, his rival faction has two.

This stay has come at a time when the Jose Mani faction has more or less decided to move out of the Congress-led United Democratic Front and into the CPI-M led Left Democratic Front as both Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan have already given the green signal to his entry and it is only a matter of time, before they are officially admitted.