The Kerala CPI(M) has initiated steps for expanding the ruling lDF it heads as part of strengthening the front further before the next general elections. A decision was taken at the party’s State committee meeting the other day to discuss the matter with the other constituents of the front.
A leadership meeting of the lDF will be held at Thiruvananthapuram on July 26 and expansion of the front could be the most important discussion point at that meeting, according to reports quoting CPI(M) sources. The party was not expecting other constituents of the coalition to raise serious objection to the proposal.
The CPI(M) has been toying with the idea of expanding the lDF for quite some time but it has been putting it off mainly due to lack of unanimity in the front on the subject. The party now thinks that strengthening the coalition further by bringing in more parties can lead to winning majority of the lok Sabha seats in the State in the next election.
The CPI(M) decision has brightened the hopes of about ten parties – that have been cooperating with the CPI(M) and the lDF from outside so far – seeking entry into the front. Some of them have been waiting to be enrolled in the coalition as formal partners for long while some had joined hands with it just before the last Assembly election.
The Kerala Congress (B) led by its chairman R Balakrishna Pillai which had come out of the Congress-led UDF – now in Opposition – is awaiting entry into the lDF. The KC(B) had quit the Congress-led coalition in 2015 following serious differences with then chief minister Oommen Chandy and had forged an alliance with the left from outside.
The Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, a splinter group of the Kerala Congress (M) led by former minister KM Mani, is also hopeful of becoming an lDF constituent before the general election. This party had quit the KC(M) protesting against the hegemony of Mani and his son Jose K Mani over the KC(M) and the former’s alleged involvement in the infamous bar bribery scam.
The Indian National league, a split-away group of second biggest UDF partner Indian Union Muslim league, has been waiting to get an entry into the lDF for over two decades.
Also, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was then CPI(M)’s State chief, had reportedly promised the INl to make it a permanent constituent of the lDF during the last lok Sabha election.
Another group that is waiting to become a formal partner of the lDF before the lok Sabha election is the one led by MP Veerendra Kumar.
This group which had split away from the Janata Dal (S) and walked away from the lDF before the 2009 lok Sabha polls after the CPI(M) unilaterally took over a seat it used to contest.
The CPI(M) had allegedly planned to let Mani’s party, which had left the UDF in July 2016, have some kind of association with the lDF during the run-up to the Chengannur Assembly by-poll last May but this was dropped due to stiff objection from the CPI, second biggest lDF constituent. The KC(M) returned to the UDF just before the by-election.
Re-energized by its candidate Saji Cherian’s thumping victory in the Chengannur by-election, the CPI(M) now feels that the left has a chance of repeating its 2004 performance of bagging 18 of the 20 lok Sabha seats in Kerala in the next general election. It is in this context that the party leadership is putting forward the idea of expanding the lDF to its lDF partners.
“What we saw in the Chengannur by-election was not just an lDF victory but it was also proof of how weak the Congress and UDF have become.
It also showed that the BJP can’t do much in Kerala politics,” said a CPI(M) State committee member. “People are with the lDF and expanding it can strengthen it further,” he said.