Kerala assembly speaker to decide official party from two factions of Kerala Congress (M)

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], October 16 (ANI): Kerala Legislative Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan has said that he has received two complaints for violating party whip from two factions of Kerala Congress (M).
"The speaker has to take a decision which faction is official party of Kerala Congress Mani group. The election commission is already decided on a verdict. I already got two complaints from two factions. I got first complaint from Roshi Augustine MLA that is why I asked them. Second faction also filed complaint that is under process," said Sreeramakrishnan.
"Both of them have violated the anti-defection law and we have to take action. Usual practice is that the Speaker can take decision and the decision taken by the Speaker is final. Before that I decided to seek explanation from both sides and also check into the details of verdict of election commission," he added.
After Kerala Congress' (M) Jose K Mani faction decided to associate with LDF, both factions are alleging violations of party whip.
Both the factions under P J Joseph and Jose K Mani have issued separate whips while UDF moved non-confidence motion against the LDF government.
Roshy Augustine MLA of Jose K Mani faction has given whip to abstain from voting in the assembly. Monce Joseph another MLA from P J Joseph faction has given another whip to support non-confidence motion.
Two MLAs from Jose K Mani faction have abstained from assembly and MLAs from PJ Joseph faction supported the non-confidence motion. Jose K Mani faction has two MLAs and PJ Joseph faction had three MLAs and C F Thomas, MLA passed away a few days back.
After the demise of Kerala Congress (M) chairman K M Mani, party got divided into two factions in a row over party chairmanship and symbol. (ANI)