Contrary to apprehensions about the possibility of cross-voting in the context of the fierce feud in the Congress-led ruling UDF, the election to three Rajya Sabha seats from Kerala passed off without surprises on Monday. While Congress’s Vayalar Ravi and Muslim league’s PV Abdul Wahab were elected from the UDF, CPI(M) candidate KK Ragesh was elected as the Rajya Sabha member of the Opposition lDF.
Vayalar Ravi was elected with 37 votes while Wahab got 36 votes, accounting for all the 73 MlAs the UDF had in the 140-member Assembly. Ragesh bagged 37 seats and a fourth candidate, K Rajan of the CPI who lost the election, got 29 votes. One seat in the Assembly is lying vacant since the death of Speaker G Karthikeyan.
This is the fourth time Ravi, a sitting member and former Union Minister, is getting elected to the Rajya Sabha. Wahab, a multimillionaire businessman, has become a Rajya Sabha member for the second time while this is the first time Ragesh has become a member. All the three new MPs said they were happy about their election.
When the polling began on Monday morning, there was apprehension in the UDF camp on whether PC George of the Kerala Congress (M), who was recently ousted as Government chief whip following his standoff with his party chairman and tainted Finance Minister KM Mani, would indeed vote for the UDF as whip was not applicable.
However, George, who is planning to become an independent by reviving his old party Kerala Congress (Secular), kept his word not to ditch the UDF in the Rajya Sabha election. He had earlier said that he would vote for Wahab as the Muslim league had requested his help. The Kerala Congress (M) has nine members in the Assembly including George.
Former Minister KB Ganesh Kumar of the Kerala Congress (B), which had left the UDF recently over issues of alleged corruption in the Government and the ruling front, said he had voted for the lDF. He had voted for the lDF in the election of the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly in March.
There were also apprehensions in the UDF camp about the position the Janata Dal (United), presently a constituent of the ruling front, might take in the context of the unification of the Janata Pariwar though the Kerala leadership of the party which had left the lDF in 2009, had announced that it would vote for the UDF in the Rajya Sabha election this time.
Former minister and senior CPI leader C Divakaran created some confusion on Monday with his statement that Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan had talked with the leaderships of the JD(U) and the RSP, which had left the lDF in March, 2014, and had requested them to vote for the lDF in the Rajya Sabha election.
Talking to newsmen after meeting the Opposition leader in his official residence in Thiruvananthapuram along with CPI candidate K Rajan, Divakaran quoted Achuthanandan as saying that he hoped the JD(U) and RSP to take a pro-lDF stand. However, State JD(U) president MP Veerendrakumar rejected Divakaran's claim.
"We have not spoken to any lDF leaders nor had VS telephoned me," Veerendrakumar said. Divakaran's statement is likely to trigger a controversy in the context of the UDF leadership's allegation that the lDF had engaged envoys to negotiate with its allies, according to observers.