Introduction
P. J. Joseph is an Indian politician, the leader of the Kerala Congress party in Kerala, and an MLA, representing the Thodupuzha assembly constituency. Since 1990 his party had been part of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) as an alliance. He has also held various ministerial positions with the Government of Kerala on several occasions. On 30 April 2010, he resigned from the LDF government and declared his party's merger with K. M. Mani's Kerala Congress.
Contributions
Joseph instituted the Gandhiji Studies Centre and the Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development. The former is a registered NGO committed to the development and empowerment of the marginalised section including farmers, unemployed, women, and children from the backward communities etc., irrespective of their caste and political affiliations. The latter concentrates on training and research for agriculture, animal husbandry and rural development.
Joseph resigned from the Kerala Cabinet on 4 November 2006 as he was accused of misbehaviour with a lady co-passenger on a Kingfisher flight. He attributed the allegation to a political vendetta by his detractors in the opposition MLA groups, who had been expelled from his party and people who had tried to criticise him in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation of a Housing Scheme for registrations called "Maitri" during his ministerial term during 1996–2001. On 11 May 2009, Chennai Sriperambathur District Magistrate Court exonerated Joseph on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence.
In the Kerala assembly election of 2011, Joseph defeated Joseph Augustine of LDF with 22,868 votes. He joined the UDF ministry led by Oommen Chandy as the Minister for Irrigations.