The Kerala unit of the Janata Dal(U) seems to be waiting for an opportune moment to leave the Congress-led ruling UDF and join the CPI(M)-headed Opposition lDF even as the Marxists have started extending invitations to it indirectly but openly. Top JD(U) leaders are said to have already started behind-the-scene negotiations with the CPI(M) leadership.
The Kerala JD(U) has been considering the option of returning to the lDF, which it had left in 2009 alleging Marxist authoritarianism, since the start of efforts for Janata Pariwar reunification at the national level. The JD(U) has since then been saying that it would take a decision on whether to stay on with the UDF or to go back to the lDF on the basis of the national policy.
Speculations about the possibility of the JD(U) joining the lDF had intensified earlier this week after its State president MP Veerendrakumar met Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan and State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. Veerendrakumar also participated in a seminar organised by the CPI(M) in Kozhikode.
Veerendrakumar and Kodiyeri had claimed that there was no need to interpret the meetings as an indication of the JD(U)’s alleged plan for switching camps but observers still see these meetings as a direct indication of its decision to take the left turn. Asked about this, a senior JD(U) leader said, “Nothing is permanent. You have the right to interpret things as you like.”
Observers say that the appearance on the other day of an editorial in Veekshanam daily, the official mouthpiece of the State Congress, which called the JD(U) ungrateful — without naming it — for its reported plan to switch camps, and the subsequent discussions over it have given a new reason for Veerendrakumar’s party to review its alliance with the Congress.
The editorial triggered sharp protests from the part of the JD(U). Its secretary general Varghese George went to the extent of saying, “If we want to leave the UDF, we will just go. We don’t need anybody’s permission for that. But we have not so far taken any decision in this regard... The Veekshanam editorial was devoid of any decency.”
Realising the gravity of the situation, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and PCC president VM Sudheeran openly criticised the party organ and the editorial but this was not enough to assuage the feelings of the JD(U).
The party has two members in the State Assembly and this number is crucial for the UDF Government, which is surviving on a thin majority of just three members.
In an obvious bid to cash in on the situation, the State CPI(M) secretary on Thursday said that it was up to the JD(U) to decide whether it should continue in the UDF by putting up with such humiliations. He said the Veekshanam editorial was at the same time a warning and a threat to the JD(U) from the Congress.
The Veekshanam editorial slamming the JD(U) had come at a time when that party was already sore at the reluctance of the Congress to take action against its leaders who were said to be responsible for Veerendrakumar’s defeat in the 2014 lok Sabha elections in Palakkad constituency on the basis of a report submitted by a fact-finding panel.
Observers are of the opinion that the JD(U) may leave UDF after the civic polls due in September and the by-polls in Aruvikkara Assembly seat, necessitated by the death of Speaker G Karthikeyan, around that time.
“It is true that we had left the lDF six years back. But it doesn’t mean that damaged relations cannot be repaired,” said a top JD(U) leader.
Veerendrakumar’s group, then part of the Janata Dal(S), had left the lDF and joined the UDF in 2009 protesting the against the unilateral takeover of the Kozhikode lok Sabha seat, which it used to contest, by the CPI(M). The party, which was later rechristened as Socialist Janata (Democratic), merged with the JD(U) in December last.