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On April 9, veteran Congress leader and former Union Defence Minister AK Antony wished that his son and BJP leader Anil K Antony should lose the election. Anil who joined the BJP last year, is contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections from the Pathanamthitta seat in Kerala.
Eighty-three-year-old AK Antony, who has also been Chief Minister of Kerala asserted that he has always been a Congress loyalist and that the Congress party has been his ‘religion’, reacting to repeated queries about his son’s politics.
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“It is a do-or-die battle,” said AK Antony, India’s longest-serving Defence Minister amid allegations that Anil Antony had joined the BJP with the silent blessings of his family. The Congress has fielded Anto Antony against BJP’s Anil Antony from the Pathanamthitta seat.
Congress (I), Congress (Urs) and Congress (A)
The Kerala Congress has been marred by factionalism for long. One of the factions known as Congress (I) with ‘I’ standing for Indira Gandhi, emerged in 1978. It comprised members who were close to the former Prime Minister. Led by former Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran, the group emerged at a time when there was a growing criticism of the Prime Minister due to the Emergency.
Also Read: Anil vs Anto: Kerala’s Pathanamthitta to witness battle of the Antony(s)
In 1979, another breakaway faction of the Congress (I) was called Congress (Urs). This faction was formed by D Devaraj Urs, the then Chief Minister of Karnataka. Urs was opposed to Indira Gandhi’s son Sanjay Gandhi into the party fold.
AK Antony joined the LDF
AK Antony was one of the most prominent leaders who was a part of Congress (Urs) faction from Kerala. But in 1980, he parted ways and formed another faction of his own — the Congress (A).
This faction later joined the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government under EK Nayanar. But after the Nayanar government fell in 1982, the Antony-led faction merged back in the original Congress.
Resigns as CM
Earlier, in October 1978, AK Antony, then Chief Minister of Kerala, had resigned in protest against the Congress Parliamentary Board’s decision to indirectly support Indira Gandhi in the Chikmagalur byelection. Antony said that the board had ‘ignored’ the feelings of Congressmen in Kerala by the decision.
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Published: 10 Apr 2024, 12:42 PM IST
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