Selecting a candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections was not an easy task for the Congress in Kerala. There were too many claimants for the lone Rajya Sabha seat the party is certain to win in the March 31 polls. However, the party almost sprang a surprise by deciding to send Jebi Mather to the Upper House of the Parliament. The selection of Mather, 43, has turned out to be an unexpected perception building exercise for the party's state unit at a time it is grappling with its never-ending internal issues.
In picking Mather, the state president of Mahila Congress, overriding claims by seasoned, and aspiring leaders, the party has made a smart move, aiming to address several questions at one go. Mather represents women, youth and minority.
The Congress was forced to infuse some young blood into its weak parliamentary body after the ruling Left parties – CPM and CPI – rather easily chose its young leaders A A Rahim and P Santhosh Kumar as candidates for the two seats they could win. The Congress looked an embarrassed lot with it struggling to fix a name even after the Left candidates filed their nominations.
Who is Jebi Mather?
A member of the prominent Mather family in Kochi, Jebi has Congress politics running in her blood. Her maternal grandfather T O Bava was former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president and paternal grandfather KCA Mather KPCC treasurer. Her father KMI Mather was a KPCC general secretary.
She started her political career as a local Youth Congress activist. She then became an executive committee member and a general secretary of the Youth Congress. In 2016, she became a secretary of the National Youth Congress which gave her an opportunity to work in Delhi. Mather has also headed the training division of AICC in several states like Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Assam and Rajasthan during 2011-15. She was one of the Youth Congress office-bearers appointed by the then Rahul Gandhi brigade. She entered electoral politics in 2015 local body polls and won as a municipal councillor in Aluva, her hometown. She repeated the win in 2020, and became the vice-chairperson. She has been an active participant in Congress's protests in Ernakulam.
She was appointed the Mahila Congress's state president in December after the post remained vacant for months following the dramatic resignation of Lathika Subhash ahead of the assembly polls. Lathika had quit the post in protest against being denied a seat to contest the elections. She later joined the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
The decision to appoint Mather to the helm of the party's women's wing was a clear sign of the acceptance she has within the Congress's changed power equations in Kerala. She found a place in the PCC's shortlist of Rajya Sabha candidates reportedly with the firm backing of Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan who is also from Ernakulam. At the same time, her candidature is expected to pacify the traditional 'A' group also as the Mather family is close to leaders like A K Antony and Oommen Chandy, a party source said. Ramesh Chennithala, who heads the now weakened I group, is also close to the family.
"The leadership was firm that the Rajya Sabha election should not pave way for another round of Congress leaders washing their dirty linen in public. The party chould have become a laughing stock if it decided to send a very senior leader to Rajya Sabha again. The Left front could make a hype by choosing two young candidates. Now, the Congress's decision has taken away the charm of their narrative. It is also a blow to the CPM's vicious campaign about lack of Muslim representation in the Congress leadership," a prominent Congress leader in Ernakulam said.
Those who staked a claim for the Congress seat include senior leaders K V Thomas and Mullappally Ramachandran, civil servant-turned politician Sreenivasan Krishnan and former Alappuzha DCC president M Liju. The KPCC had reportedly submitted a shortlist of three names – Mather, Liju and Jaison Joseph – to the high command. Considerations of gender, age and religion all favoured Mather, even though KPCC president K Sudhakaran had publicly acknowledged that Liju was among those considered for the candidature, which was widely interpreted as the party state unit's push for the young and vibrant leader.
