The Congress-led ruling UDF in Kerala, already beleaguered by internal feuds and the corruption charges against its Government, is now facing the possibility of losing a small but important constituent, the Janata Dal (United), just when preparations have started for the Assembly election due in May. The State JD(U) has of late been giving out strong indications of getting closer to the CPI(M)-led lDF with which it had severed ties over six years ago.
Though JD(U) leaders are repeatedly saying that no discussions are on in the party or with left on leaving the UDF, reports say that behind-the-scene talks are being held at individual levels among leaders from both sides.
According to a top source in the JD(U), “We are being continuously betrayed by the Congress. This happened in the 2014 lok Sabha election and in the recent local bodies election. The Congress had allotted us seats in the civic election along with two rebels in each of those seats. How can we believe that the same betrayal won’t be repeated in the Assembly electionIJ”
The Congress had got the first strong signs of the possibility that the JD(U) might switch camps a few days ago when its State chief MP Veerendra Kumar shared a dais with his prime political foe for the past six years, CPI(M) Politbureau member Pinarayi Vijayan. Close on the heels of this, the CPI(M) had described Kumar as “ a relative trapped in the enemy’s front”.
The Kerala JD(U), previously a section in the Janata Dal (S), had left the lDF and joined the UDF just before the 2009 lok Sabha election after the CPI(M) unilaterally took over the Kozhikode seat it used to contest. This section of the JD(S) was later renamed as Socialist Janata (Democratic) and merged with the JD(U) in December, 2014.
In the 2011 Assembly election, the UDF allotted seven seats to the SJ(D) – now JD(U) – but it lost five of them. One of the two MlAs the party presently has is MV Sreyams Kumar, son of Veerendra Kumar, and the other is a Minister, KP Mohanan, who is said to be against the move to return to the lDF.
The problems between the Congress and the JD(U) had started with the defeat of Veerendra Kumar in the Palakkad constituency in the 2014 lok Sabha election which the JD(U) said was the result of leg-pulling by certain Congress leaders. A UDF committee was appointed to examine this, and the JD(U) complains that no action has so far been taken on its report.
“This betrayal was followed by the betrayal in the local polls,” said the JD(U) source. He said the JD(U) had hoped that the issue would be resolved with the Kerala visit of Congress president Sonia Gandhi on December 30 during which she met the leaders of UDF partners. “But that hope is now over. I don’t think anything is going to happen,” he added.
Of late, the JD(U) has been openly attacking the Congress with the charge that it had been mild in its approach towards communalism. “I must say that it was the left which had taken a firm stand against communalism during the civic election. The UDF should have taken a far firmer approach towards communalism,” Sreyams Kumar said the other day.
State JD(U) secretary general Varghese George also accused the Congress of adopting mild approach to communalism. “Do you know what we told Sonia Gandhi when she came hereIJ We told her that when the people of Bihar rejected the BJP, it got huge gains here in local poll and the main reason for this was the Congress’s mild Hindutwa approach,” he told a TV channel.
Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy called on Veerendra Kumar two days back to assure him that all issues could be sorted out but reports said that the latter had not been convinced. On Saturday, State Congress president VM Sudheeran said he did not foresee the JD(U) leaving the UDF. “Neither the JD(U) nor any other party is facing any problem in the UDF,” he said.