For UDF, seat sharing is no easy task

Thiruvananthapuram: The plans of the Congress party to announce its candidates for Lok Sabha poll before the end of February and to kick start the campaign even before the election notification have been scuttled by the UDF constituents. KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran, who had said that the candidates for the 20 seats are more or less finalized, is in a spot now as IUML and KC(M) have upped the ante for more seats.
However, the KPCC chief denied that there was any lack of trust between the constituents. “The discussions have been scheduled with the constituents and everything will be sorted out,” Ramachandran said. He had met the IUML leaders on Saturday, raising speculation that he had come to Panakkad to persuade them. “It was just a courtesy call and no discussions were held,” he said.

The IUML leadership was reportedly upset over the way the KPCC president announced that all the seats have been finalized even before having a discussion in the UDF. The Congress had more or less decided to field all its sitting MPs and to find out fresh names for the other seats without any delay.

During his visit to Kochi, AICC president Rahul Gandhi and A K Antony had advised the UDF leaders to settle the seat sharing exercise within the state. Against this backdrop, the KPCC leadership will begin talks with the UDF constituents in the second week of February.

The Congress leadership will have to settle the demand made by the KC(M) for a second seat. The party is not happy with KC(M) contesting from Kottayam again and hence there is already a suggestion to give Idukki seat to KC(M). But things are more complicated within the KC(M) and there is demand for both the seats.

However, K M Mani has made it clear that he will not put pressure on the UDF leadership by claiming an additional seat. “We have asked for a second seat but it is not a pressure tactic. We will hold discussions and then finalise,” said Mani. Meanwhile, giving signs of fissures opening up in the KC(M), P J Joseph has said that he would go ahead with the demand for the second seat.

The IUML’s demand for a third seat has also surfaced due to pressure from within. The KPCC leadership is not much concerned about the demand as they believe that the IUML can be easily persuaded.

For KPCC, the biggest headache is finalizing the candidates for Thrissur, Chalakkudy, Palakkad, Wayanad and Attingal seats. Also, there is dissent against fielding the current MPs in Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam seats. The party will have to sort out all these issues if the leadership really intends to go by the decision to announce the candidates much in advance.