The stalemate in Kerala over seat-sharing between parties within the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has deepened as Mani faction and JSS stick to their stands. Of the nine constituent parties in the UDF, consensus has been reached only with three, of which the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) agreed to contest in 23 seats, Communist Marxist Party (CMP) in three seats and Kerala Congress (Balakrishna Pillai faction) from two Assembly seats, Kottarakkara and Pathanapuram.
Kerala Congress demanded 22 seats saying its political strength has increased after the merger of Kerala Congress (Joseph faction), which was earlier a part of the Left Democratic Front (LDF). So they demand more seats, including the sensitive seat of Thodupuzha in Idukki district.
Meanwhile, Mani faction, which has been given 13 seats this time, is in no mood to settle at that figure. A consensus over Thoudupuzha seat is crucial for the UDF. In 2006 polls PJ Joseph, then chairman of Kerala Congress (Joseph) faction defeated the Congress candidate there. Mani had unofficiallly announced Joseph's candidature from Thodupuzha at a press conference in New Delhi a couple of weeks back. This created a political earthquake in the state and ended in a series of clashes between the workers of the two parties in Thodupuzha.
On Wednesday, the local Congress workers organised a secret meeting and decided to oppose Joseph if he becomes the candidate of this constituency. Kerala Congress (Mani) also wants to become the second largest party in the UDF to raise the demand for deputy chief ministership. The Congress party's rank and file have already put up a stiff resistance against this.
JSS, under the leadership of former Communist leader KR Gowri Amma, now demands at least five seats, but the Congress is ready to provide only three. JSS also demands Cherthala constituency instead of Aroor where Gowri Amma had been defeated last time. Congress is not ready to give up Cherthala, a sure bet of the party. Gowri Amma said that her party would say goodbye to the UDF unless they would be given five seats including Cherthala.
CPI(M) is exploiting the situation in the UDF and wants to associate with JSS. The party also signalled that Gowri Amma can associate with it. Thomas Issac, the state finance minister, said on Wednesday that the contribution of Gowri Amma towards the Communist movement in the state was remarkable and nobody can negate this. In recent times a number of CPI(M) leaders including VS Achuthanandan, Pinarayi Vijayan, state secretary, Thomas Issac and MA Baby had visited Gowri Amma at her residence and held discussions.
If GowriAmma decides to leave UDF, there will be a split in JSS as two MLAs, Rajan Babu and KK Shaju will remain with the UDF. So Congress wants to accommodate only these two sitting MLAs and not seeing veteran leader Gowri Amma as a crucial factor in the elections.
Seat-sharing settlement has to be reached between parties like Socialist Janata Dal, Kerala Congress (Jacob) and RSP(B). Socialist Janata Dal which has its foothold in the Malabar region, especially in Wayanad, Kozhikode and Palakkad districts demands 12 seats and Kerala Congress (Jacob) wants four seats. Congress is ready to give six seats to Janata Dal. Kerala Congress (Jacob) is expected to settle at two seats and RSP(B) will take one.
The seat sharing business became complex as two parties, Kerala Congress (Joseph) and Socialist Janata Dal became part of UDF. These two parties were with the LDF in last assembly polls. Congress is scheduled to complete the discussions with these parties by Friday. The total number of seats in the Kerala Assembly is 140.
