KR Gowri Amma to merge her party JSS with CPM
Gowri Amma, 96, will officially announce the merger of her party, Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samiti (JSS), with the CPM in Alappuzha on August 19.
Veteran communist leader of Kerala KR Gowri Amma has decided to return to the CPM. Gowri Amma, 96, will officially announce the merger of her party, Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samiti (JSS), with the CPM in Alappuzha on August 19.
August 19 is the death anniversary of the Communist leader P Krishna Pillai. It was Pillai who brought Gowri Amma into the CPM. The merger is an indicator of new CPM leadership's commitment to bring veteran leaders back into the party to strengthen it.
Gowri Amma, a veteran and much respected CPM leader was expelled in 1994 for "anti-party activities". Amma was revenue minister in the first communist government, headed by EMS Namboodiripad, in 1957. It was then that she moved the revolutionary land reorganisation bill.
Amma and her husband TV Thomas were once considered to be communist power couple of the state. However, when the CPI divided in 1964, Thomas stayed on in the party while Gowri Amma went with the newly formed CPM. She was minister in 1967, 1980 and 1987.
In 1987, she was seen as the chief ministerial candidate but the top post eventually went to EK Nayanar. It was an instance that showed up the party's inability to break the stranglehold of men and upper castes and crown a woman and a leader from a backward community, in this instance the Ezhava.