Kerala’s Congress-led Opposition UDF, which suffered a severe jolt last Sunday when major constituent Kerala Congress (M) quit the front, has begun efforts to keep the remaining constituents together even as a minor but significant front partner, Janata Dal (United), has indirectly but clearly warned that it will have to review its stand as far as the relationship with the front is concerned.
A meeting of the UDF leadership in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday — the first meeting of the front since the departure of the KC(M) — decided that the Congress party would hold bilateral talks with the other constituents of the front. “Such talks would be held as part of the efforts to find solutions to problems being faced by the UDF,” said Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala of the Congress.
The UDF meeting also decided to continue the alliance with the KC(M) in local administration and cooperative bodies. The KC(M) led by its chairman KM Mani, who was forced to resign as Finance minister in the former UDF Government following a `1-crore bribery charge against him, had left the UDF last Sunday alleging that certain Congress leaders had conspired against him.
The JD(U), which contested one seat in the 2014 lok Sabha polls and lost it and was defeated in all the seven constituencies it had contested in the May 16 Assembly election, has now asked the Congress for steps to find solutions to the problems it had raised. The JD(U) is convinced that it had tasted defeat in the last two elections because of leg-pulling by Congressmen.
Sheikh P Harris, State general secretary of the JD(U), told the media on Wednesday that it was very important that the Congress got rid of its feeling that its partners in the coalition were external entities which did not deserve decent treatment. It would be difficult to go ahead with the alliance without the Congress changing its mindset, he was quoted as saying.
However, Chennithala claimed that the Congress had never acted like a big brother within the coalition. “Every constituent party is getting equal consideration. The Congress has never been in the habit of imposing its decisions on the constituents,” he said, adding that the Kerala Congress (M) had left the UDF on its own.
The Kerala JD(U) is unhappy over the fact that though there had been initiatives to look into the reasons for the defeat of its candidates in the last two elections, there had been no action on the basis of the findings of these examinations. The JD(U)’s complaint is that its repeated calls to the Congress for action against those responsible for these defeats have fallen on deaf years.
“After the defeat of our State president MP Veerendra Kumar in Palakkad in the 2014 lok Sabha election, the UDF had constituted a committee, headed by Kerala Congress (B) chairman R Balakrishna Pillai, to look into the reasons of the defeat. Pillai’s party is now with the CPI(M)-led lDF. But what did the Congress do with the report of that panelIJ” asked a top JD(U) leader.
Many top leaders of the State JD(U) now feel that it was not entirely wise for the party to leave the lDF before the lok Sabha polls of 2009 protesting the CPI(M)’s refusal to allot the Kozhikode seat to it. A section of the Janata Dal (S) led by Veerendra Kumar had then left the lDF and joined the UDF. This faction later merged with the JD(U).
Sources in the JD(U) said that it might think of changing its political position during its plenary meeting to be held in October. They point out that the lDF has already said that it will not shut its doors to the JD(U) and the RSP – which had quit the left front in 2014 – if they come back and the JD(U) should consider this offer seriously.