Much venom even before the murder boast

Over the years,Mani,now 67,has come to be known for treating his rivals with scorn,be they politicians or officials,his statements sometimes vulgar,the contempt always showing on his face. Otherwise a simple leader,he can be straightforward to the point of coarseness. “The arms and legs of those who come for eviction will be chopped off,” he said in 2008-09,challenging a drive by his party’s government against encroachment in Munnar hill station. And when IAS officer Gopala Menon was appointed the nodal man for the eviction,Mani said,“Menon will be crushed by a truck.”

No one had grumbled about it until Friday’s announcement,which left the Congress seething and the CPM embarrassed.

Though a school dropout after the fourth standard,Mani is called Asan,or guru,in a party where everybody addresses everybody else as Comrade. Son of a toddy tapper in Central Kerala’s Kidangoor village,he was 10 when he migrated to Idukki with his family.

He worked as a farmhand before entering the plantation sector,where he shaped into a politician,taking on enemies. In the high ranges of Idukki,where the stakes of migrant farmers,encroachers,plantation owners and their militant workers shape the contours of politics,there was little room for ideology in battle. As Mani’s statement indicated,parties rose and fell with cadres killing and getting killed.

With time,Mani rose through the ranks to become the party’s leader in the district. Elected district secretary for an eighth consecutive term in the recently concluded district conference of the party,Mani is the longest serving leader in such a post in any district of Kerala. Mani had helped the CPM trample the CPI,which once dominated politics in these regions.

He used to be a staunch loyalist of V S Achuthanandan,then crossed over to the party’s rival group led by Pinarayi Vijayan. This was during the eviction at Munnar. It had begun with the dismantling of a mobile tower erected on land encroached on by Mani’s younger brother Lambodharan. Mani’s attitude,which many felt amounted to bullying,paved the way for a quick end to the eviction drive.

After that success,Mani got the entire district unit of the party into the Vijayan camp. And since then,Mani has never missed a chance to attack Achuthanandan. With the tacit support of the official faction,he forced VS to stay out of the district even during the Assembly election. The district is pro-UDF but the CPM managed to win three out of its five seats.

Mani contested the Assembly polls in 1996. After losing,he has stuck to the party organisation,apparently realising that his manners would never win him votes.