Kerala Socialist Party (KSP) was a political party in India founded under the leadership of Mathai Manjooran on September 21, 1947 at Kozhikode. It began as a small party, but its front-line leaders compelled the party deep into the public imagination.
In the changed atmosphere of the present it is hard to evoke the degree of excitement and promise the new party held out to the State. Within the short time span of two decade and a half of its coming into existence KSP came to play a larger-than-life role in the political landscape of the post-independence Kerala State.
Among its founding members other than Mathai Manjooran there was N. Sreekantan Nair, M.P. Menon (who later went on to become a Judge of the High Court of Kerala), K. Balakrishnan (son of the veteran Congress leader C. Kesavan), John Manjooran, K.C.K.M. Mather, P. K. Balakrishnan, K.R. Chummar, G. Janardhana Kurup, T.P. Chakrapani, M.T. Lazar, A.P. Pillai to name only some of the prominent leaders. It was one among the seven parties that came together to form a coalition government under the chiefministership of E.M.S. Namboodiripad in the 1967.
The fate of the KSP however was sealed within its makeup. It goes naturally that such an explosive combination of talents could not get along together in harmony for long. In 1949 October, within 2 years of its inception the party underwent a split and N. Sreekantan Nair, Baby John and K. Balakrishnan joined the Revolutionary Socialist Party, then a small socialist party confined to Bengal.
Other prominent leaders of the KSP were as follows:
- Mamman Kannanthanam.
- P. Sankarankutty.
- Cherian Manjooran.
- S.S. Das.
- K.G. Nath.
- Karunakara Menon.
- A. Damodaran.
- C.N. Sreekandan Nair.
- C.S. Gangadharan.
- Varkey Unnikkunnel
- Baby John.
- Prakkulam Bhasi.
- Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai.
- C. Vivekanandan.
- Sadananda Shastri.
- L.G. Pai.
- T.K. Divakaran.
- M.L. George.
- U. Neelakhandan.
Important members and fellow travellers of the KSP.
- M.K. Menon (Vilasini).
- K.M. Roy.
- P G George (Tata Employees Union)
Famous quotes containing the words socialist and/or party:
“I pass the test that says a man who isn’t a socialist at 20 has no heart, and a man who is a socialist at 40 has no head.”
—William Casey (1913–1987)
“The real grounds of difference upon important political questions no longer correspond with party lines.... Politics is no longer the topic of this country. Its important questions are settled... Great minds hereafter are to be employed on other matters.... Government no longer has its ancient importance.... The people’s progress, progress of every sort, no longer depends on government. But enough of politics. Henceforth I am out more than ever.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)