Wednesday, December 21 2005 11:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala witnessed a major split in ruling Congress with veteran K Karunakaran breaking ranks and a serious development debate as the state entered its golden jubilee year with a mixed legacy of commendable achievements in social sector and a weak economy standing on shaky foundations.

The state owes it to President A P J Abdul Kalam for inspiring the development discourse by proposing 10 development missions for Kerala during his address to the state assembly in June.

Kalam made Keralites seriously think about their future when he called upon the law-makers to work out ways of leading the state to an era of progress by tapping on inherent strengths like nature's bounty and the vast pool of human resource.

Setting aside protocol trappings, the President made a multi-media presentation in the assembly hall projecting that Kerala could make great strides by harnessing its potential in areas like IT, tourism, healthcare and value-addition of agro and marine products.

Kalam's Kerala Mission evoked positive response from all shades of political opinion and the Congress Government made them the basis for a long-term development plan worked out to mark golden jubilee of the state-formation.

While the goal of turning the state into a major investment destination remains a distant dream, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy could take credit for getting the promise of Rs 30,000 crore central investment in Kerala.

These projects, announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, include the Transhipment Container Terminal, a petrochemical complex under GAIL and the second and third phases of NTPC's plant at Kayamkulam.

Some of the big plans like Smart City IT project have run into controversy with the opposition hurling corruption charges but Chandy has declined to give in asserting that Kerala could no longer afford to miss the development bus.

Kerala has been hailed as a role model in view of its achievements in universal literacy and education, healthcare and family planning, land reforms and coalition politics. But at 50 the state is faced with the challenge of strengthening its economy by changing with the times.

The long-drawn faction feud in the state unit of ruling Congress led to its split with veteran leader K Karunakaran breaking away from the party he had served for seven decades to float a new outfit called Democratic Indira Congress.

When Karunakaran split the Congress on May 1, it marked the culmination of decades-long rift in the party in Kerala which saw the octogenarian leader constantly at loggerheads with inner-party rivals like A K Antony and Oommen Chandy.

As the ways of politics are often strange, Karunakaran who had for long fought the mighty Marxists is now waiting for the green signal from Communist Party of India (CPI) Marxist (M) polit bureau for formal entry of his fledgling outfit into the LDF.

The 'Leader', as the well politicon is known, had already demonstrated his clout by securing enmasse resignation of nine MLAs and grievously harming the UDF by striking tactical ties with LDF in civic elections and Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha by-poll.

The Congress split accentuated the ruling UDF's downslide, which lost heavily in local body elections and routed in Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha by-poll when the assembly elections are round the corner.

Though on a strong political wicket, the CPI-M too had its share of inner-party commotions as the power struggle between groups loyal to party stalwart V S Achuthanandan and state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan reached a flash-point at the party' triennial state conference in Malappuram in February.

Achuthanandan, who heads the traditionalist faction, suffered a big setback when the group led by Viajayan seized the control of the party set-up in Malappuram.

The CPI-M central leadership's intervention failed to solve problems in the state when the party is getting ready to grab power through the assembly polls in May next.