The seat-sharing process for the lok Sabha polls is nearing a crisis in Kerala's Congress-led ruling UDF with major coalition constituents demanding more seats to contest than they have been contesting traditionally just when the front leader wants to contest the maximum number of seats in the State considering the discomforting situation it is facing in the national level.
The first seeds of feud in the UDF with respect to seat-sharing were sown by the Kerala Congress (M), third biggest partner in the front, which has demanded two seats for it while it used to contest only one seat (Kottayam) traditionally. Following this, the Muslim league, second biggest front constituent, is asking for three seats instead of the two it used to contest.
The total number of lok Sabha seats in Kerala is 20 of which the Congress has been contesting 17 traditionally. The Congress this time will be forced to allocate one seat to the Socialist Janata (Democratic), a splinter group of the Janata Dal (S) which had left the CPI(M)-led lDF and joined the UDF after the Marxists took over its seat (Kozhikode) in the last lok Sabha polls.
In the 2009 lok Sabha election, the Congress had won 13 of these 17 seats while the Muslim league won both the seats it contested and the Kerala Congress (M) bagged its lone seat where party chairman KM Mani's son Jose K Mani was the UDF candidate. The remaining four seats were won by the CPI(M). The lDF had bagged 18 seats in the 2004 election in Kerala.
After a meeting of the high-power committee of the KC(M) on Saturday evening, Mani made it clear that his party could not abandon the demand for two seats and that the preferred additional seat was Idukki, which was currently being held by PT Thomas of the Congress. But Mani said his party was ready to take any other "winnable seat" instead of Idukki.
However, the faction within the KC(M) led by working chairman PJ Joseph, whose KC(J) had merged with Mani's party in 2010, is firm about getting the Idukki seat which used to be represented by Joseph-loyalist Francis George when they were in the lDF. Congress MP Thomas has already raised stiff objection to the KC(M) demand.
Despite Thomas's objections, the Congress leadership clearly knows that Mani cannot drop the demand as he is under pressure from the Joseph faction. It is also apprehensive about Thomas's prospects in Idukki this time as a section of the powerful Catholic Church and several settler farmer forums are opposing him over his stand on the issue of protection of the Western Ghats.
The Muslim league has already staked claim for three seats saying that it deserves an additional seat if the KC(M) is getting two seats. The league is demanding the Wayanad or Kasaragod seat (both with considerable Muslim presence) in addition to their traditional seats, Malappuram and Ponnani.
State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala said that it was not at all surprising that certain front constituents were asking for more seats but that would not affect the UDF's unity. However, a Congress leader admitted toThe Pioneer: "It is certain that seat-sharing this time is not going to be an easy exercise as it used to be."
Both the Kerala Congress (M) and the Muslim league are likely to stake their claims for more seats during the bilateral talks the Congress will hold with them on Monday. There are also reports that the Muslim league does not actually want a third seat but it is raising the matter only to defeat the claim of the Kerala Congress (M).
Observers point out that both the league and the KC(M) deserve more seats if their strengths in the 140-member Assembly are taken as a yardstick. The Muslim league has 20 MlAs and the KC(M) has nine while the Congress, which wants 17 lok Sabha seats, has only 38 members in the House.