The unilateral decision of the national leadership of the Congress, leader of the nine-party ruling UDF in Kerala, to field party candidates in 17 of the total 20 lok Sabha seats and allocate just the remaining three to allies in the coming election has set off rumblings of dissent in the front even before the start of the seat-sharing talks.
UDF partners are demanding more seats this time than what they used to contest but the Congress position is that this demand cannot be honoured considering the crucial nature of the coming election. As per reports from Delhi, the feeling in the high command is that the Congress should work to get as many seats as possible in States where the situation is favourable to it.
The Congress’s national leadership has asked the Kerala leaders to prepare a list of the 17 candidates to be fielded in the lok Sabha polls in the State as soon as possible. The high command has also reportedly told the PCC leadership that the only criterion applicable in this matter is winnability of the candidates.
The major constituents of the front have already warned the Congress leadership against the decision, saying that any such move would invite dire consequences to the entire UDF. Of the total 20 seats, two are contested by the Indian National Muslim league and one by the Kerala Congress(M) of Finance Minister KM Mani traditionally.
However, these UDF constituents are refusing to be satisfied with the seats they were getting to contest in the past considering the fact that the Congress had become much weaker. Socialist Janata (Democratic), a split-away group of the Janata Dal (S), which had not got any seat to contest in the last lok Sabha polls, is also insisting on getting one.
leaders of these parties say that the Congress does not deserve to get 17 seats to contest on the basis of any political criterion. “There was a time when the Congress could ask for these many seats. That time is gone. Realistically speaking, giving 17 seats to the Congress in the present context would mean inviting a tragedy for the front,” said a Kerala Congress (M) leader.
In the 140-member State Assembly, the Congress has only 39 members while the Muslim league, second biggest party in the UDF, has 20 seats. Poll-watchers in Kerala feel that the Congress has no right to demand 17 seats for itself while allotting just two seats to the Muslim league when it has more than half the number of seats the Congress has in the House.
“We don’t think that the Congress leadership’s decision is in any way final,” said senior Muslim league leader Abdurahman Randathani MlA. “Not even the primary discussions on seat-sharing have been completed in Kerala. How can there be a decision on such serious matters when no discussions have been held so farIJ” he asked.
The Muslim league, which traditionally contests the Muslim-majority Ponnani and Malappuram constituencies in Malabar, is eyeing the Wayanad seat also this time. The party has already threatened to go it alone in Ponnani and Malappuram if the Congress was not prepared to end its group wars and solve the problems in the UDF.