US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

CPI-M bid to wrest seats riles allies

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The constituents of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Democratic Front in Kerala are in a belligerent mood over the CPI-M's attempt to appropriate some of their seats.

A two-day session of the CPI-M state committee, which concluded at Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday, has decided to wrest the Kollam Lok Sabha seat from the Revolutionary Socialist Party, Kannur from the Congress-S and Muvattupuzha from the Janata Dal without holding any discussions with the partners.

The three parties are expected to take up the matter at the state LDF committee meeting to be held on August 3.

The CPI-M argument for seeking the Kollam seat is that if the RSP contests the seat, its rebels would set up their candidate splitting the LDF votes. The seat was won by the undivided RSP in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections by 71,760 votes.

The breakaway RSP faction headed by Baby John, which has not been formally recognised as a constituent of the LDF so far, has already declared its intention to contest the seat.

The other faction is also insisting on fielding sitting MP N K Premachandran, who has made his mark in the constituency in a short span of time.

The CPI-M plans to give the ticket to Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation chairman P Rajendran or a mutually acceptable independent.

The party hopes to win over the RSP-B if an independent acceptable to all the three parties is given the ticket. However, the RSP-B is cut-up with the CPI-M for not recognising it as a constituent of the LDF and is toying with the idea of switching over to the Congress-led United Democratic Front.

The CPI-M has sought to keep the issue of recognising the RSP-B in limbo till the Lok Sabha elections are completed in order not to upset the political equations.

The CPI-M is eyeing the Kannur seat as it suspects that the Nationalist Congress Party, into which the Congress-S has merged, might end up in the Bharatiya Janata Party camp sooner or later.

The party has already identified Students' Federation of India president A P Abudallakutty as its candidate for Kannur.

However, the Congress-S is not inclined to sacrifice its seat. The party has already decided to field Health Minister A C Shanmughadas, who had lost the seat by a whisker in the last elections.

As for Muvattupuzha, the CPI-M feels that the Janata Dal is unable to break the UDF stranglehold on the seat. The Kerala Congress-M, a constituent of the UDF, had won the seat by a margin of 1,13,809 votes in 1998.

The CPI-M intends to field Kerala State Women's Development Corporation chairperson M C Josephine as its nominee.

The CPI-M has promised to provide Rajya Sabha seats to the RSP and the Congress-S in lieu of the seats. However, both the parties are not keen on accepting the proposal.

As a result, the August 3 meeting is likely to be stormy.

If the CPI-M manages to get the three seats, it would be contesting 14 out of 20 seats in the state. The party had contested 11 seats in the last elections and won six.

The party has already decided to field all sitting MPs in their respective constituencies. This would mean that Varkala Radhakrishnan would be fielded in Chirayinkil, Suresh Kurup in Kottayam, S Ajaykumar in Ottapalam, N N Krishnadas in Palakkad, Professor A K Premajam in Badagarda and T Govindan in Kasargod.

The CPI-M state committee also plans to field film star Murali in Alappuzha, late E M S Namboodiripad's son E M Sreedharan in Mukundapuram and Professor Ninan Koshy in Mavelikkara.

It is yet to decide the Ernakulam candidate, where CPI-M-backed independent Sebastian Paul had lost the 1998 elections by 74,508 votes.

Tell us what you think of this report