THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The United Democratic Front (UDF) meeting scheduled on Tuesday is crucial as the Congress, and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) are going to battle it out over the civic poll imbroglio.
The Congress is keen not to call staggered elections. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) expects the IUML to fall in line and hold elections as per the old delimitation.
The KPCC executive meeting is scheduled for September 4. Leaders belonging to the two parties are eagerly looking forward to seeing the outcome of the meeting between Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and State Election Commissioner K. Sasidharan Nair on Monday evening.
A prominent KPCC general secretary said it was the government which was at fault for the delay in holding the elections in time.
“The Congress wants the elections held on time and not to delay it further. In fact, it is the LDF that divided the wards, and the UDF government should have rectified it in time. So if the Congress decides to postpone the elections, voters would only misinterpret,” he told DC.
But he did not spare the SEC officials too. He alleged that they have all along been negative and did not deal with the NRI voting issue also in the government’s favour.
However, IUML general secretary K. P. A. Majeed said the party was in no mood to compromise. But their priority is to hold the elections in time.
“Already, the SEC has informed of practical difficulties as well as government’s inability. Both these issues would be discussed at Monday’s meeting and let’s see the outcome. But our stand has been that the elections should keep the schedule,” Mr Majeed told DC.
The government has initiated moves to conduct the elections in two phases, municipalities and corporations in the first phase and three-tier panchayats in the second phase.
The move aims to keep the newly formed municipalities and to escape the blame for delaying the elections.
Monday’s meeting will reveal whether the SEC agrees to the proposal or not.
