The Congress in Kerala has achieved a detente with the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) by promising the key United Democratic Front (UDF) ally a Rajya Sabha berth in return for relinquishing the latter’s strident demand for a third Lok Sabha seat.
At a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on February 28 (Wednesday), Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan conceded that the IUML was “immensely eligible” for a third Lok Sabha seat.
However, Mr. Satheesan said, the IUML “gracefully renounced” its “immensely justifiable demand” after the Congress raised specific questions about the practicality of such a last-minute arrangement.
Mr. Satheesan claimed that the IUML’s reconciliatory stance had cleared the way for the UDF to finalise its candidates in the 20 Lok Sabha segments in Kerala.
He said the Congress wanted Rahul Gandhi to contest again from the Wayanad constituency. Mr. Satheesan dismissed the ruling Left Democratic Front’s (LDF) contention that Mr. Gandhi’s candidature from Kerala was inexpedient to the INDIA bloc platform.
(Earlier, the LDF had counselled that Mr. Gandhi should take the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main adversary, by the horns on its home turf in Uttar Pradesh instead of denting the secular alliance by skirmishing with a staunch INDIA bloc ally in Kerala.)
Mr. Satheesan pointed out that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] had no qualms about contesting with Congress support in Tamil Nadu. “The CPI(M) candidates in Tamil Nadu had Mr. Gandhi’s picture on their election posters”, he pointed out.
Mr. Satheesan pointed out that the Congress was contesting against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a key INDIA bloc ally, in Punjab. At the same time, they had entered into an electoral pact in New Delhi.
Mr. Satheesan said the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s (KPCC) candidate selection process was in its final stages.
The All India Congress Committee (AICC) would finalise whether KPCC president K. Sudhakaran and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal should contest.
He said the UDF had wrested 32 seats from the LDF in seven local body byelections in the past two years, underscoring that the palpable resentment against the government would work to the Opposition’s advantage at the hustings.
On T.P. murder case
Mr. Sudhakaran claimed that the momentous Kerala High Court order doubling the legal jeopardy of the suspects in the murder of the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader T.P. Chandrasekharan in 2012 in Kozhikode had exposed the CPI(M) leadership’s link to the crime.
He said the CPI(M)‘s “use of assassination as a political tool” to eliminate rivals and stifle dissent would be a central talking point of the UDF’s Lok Sabha campaign.
Mr. Sudhakaran pointed out that the CPI(M) “assault” on the Congress’s black flag demonstrators during the Navakerala Sadas testified to the ruling party’s cruelty.
He also attempted to link the death by suicide of a student at the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pookode, in Wayanad recently to alleged Students’ Federation of India’s (SFI) harassment.
‘Politics of terror’
Mr. Sudhakaran said the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency he represents was the biggest victim of the CPI(M)‘s “politics of terror”. He said the CPI(M)‘s writ runs unchallenged in scores of “party villages” where democracy remained illusory.
“No other political entity could access the party villages where people live in fear”, Mr. Sudhakaran said.
He said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan would meet his Waterloo in the Lok Sabha polls. “The Lok Sabha polls will signal the swansong of the Pinarayi era in the LDF”, Mr. Sudhakaran said.
