Kerala’s CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF on Monday completed the process of seat-sharing among its constituents for the crucial May 16 Assembly election without any serious hiccups after a series of discussions held over the past three weeks. The Front has already started efforts to finalise its full list of candidates by Wednesday.
As per the understanding reached at during bilateral talks between the CPI(M) and its partners and associates on Monday morning and a meeting of the lDF in the afternoon, the Marxist party will contest in 92 seats in the election to the 140-member State legislature. The party had contested in 93 seats in the 2011 election and won in 47 of them.
In the context of a surplus of four seats in the lDF after the departure of RSP from it in 2014, the CPI had staked claim for more seats but the second biggest party in the front ultimately agreed to be satisfied with 27 seats, the same number of seats it had contested in the 2011 polls. The CPI had won 13 seats in the last Assembly election.
The lDF leaders claimed that the seat-sharing talks had concluded without inviting any serious complaint from any of the partners though some parties had to make small sacrifices in the common interest of the coalition. “There were no problems at all. The talks had proceeded and ended well,” said CPI(M)’s State secretariat member Anathalavattom Anandan.
However, sources in the JSS of nonagenarian communist leader KR Gowri aired unhappiness over the non-allocation of even a single seat to it. The JSS, which was till recently with the UDF, had sought entry into the lDF. The CPI(M) is likely to field a candidate who is agreeable to Gowri’s party in a selected constituency in order to satisfy it.
long-time lDF partner Janata Dal (S) has been given the same number of seats - five - as it had been allocated in 2011 though it had asked for a minimum of six constituencies. The NCP has been given four seats. It also had been allocated the same number of seats in the last election. Minor font partner Congress (S) has been given the Kannur seat to contest.
Though it is not yet a formal constituent of the lDF, the Janadhipathya Kerala Congress, a party floated as recently as on March 8 by the rebels from the Kerala Congress (M), has been given four seats though it had asked for five seats. “But we have no complaints. We are sure that the front leadership has been reasonable,” said a party leader.
The other Kerala Congress group which was an associate of the left in 2011 also was a loser this time as its share went down from three to one. The Indian National league, a long-time supporter of the left, will contest in three seats while other parties supporting the left from outside - CMP, Kerala Congress (B) and RSP (leninist) - have been given one seat each.
Meanwhile, seat-sharing discussions in the Congress-led ruling UDF have met a hard wall due to the uncompromising stands taken by the front leader and major partner Kerala Congress (M) of former Finance minister KM Mani. Talks between the Congress and minor UDF constituent Kerala Congress (J) have also reached nowhere.
“Our original demand was for three additional seats but we diluted it to just one as a gesture of compromise. let us see what happens. The discussions will continue,” Mani said. The KC(M), third biggest UDF constituent, had contested in 15 seats in the last Assembly election and had won nine of them.
The KC(J)’s issue is more serious as that party is resisting a Congress bid to take over the Angamaly seat where its chairman Johny Nelloor had contested in 2011. “It is the hegemonic attitude of the Congress which has stalled the process. It can’t impose its will on us just because we are a minor partner in the front,” said a KC(J) leader close to Nelloor.