Thiruvananthapuram: The ruling LDF on Friday decided to field Janata Dal leader M. P. Veerendrakumar for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha polls. The lone Rajya Sabha seat from Kerala had fallen vacant after Veerendrakumar resigned in December protesting against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to join NDA.
The LDF decision came in the wake of letter written by Veerendrakumar extending full cooperation to the ruling front.
The nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha election to be held on March 23, will be filed on March 12. Of the 9 Rajya Sabha seats from Kerala CPM and Congress have three each, IUML and KCM one each. Given the existing strength of CPM in the Assembly, Veerendrakumar’s victory is certain.
Though the CPI had in the past staked claim for Rajya Sabha as they have just one member in current Lok Sabha and their lone RS member D. Raja is scheduled to retire in July 2019, this time around it didn’t raise demand for the seat. Other allies also did not stake claim for the seat which they felt should go to Veerendrakumar. They all are in favour of bringing back JDU and RSP into LDF fold.
The LDF, however, decided to take up the issue of JDU’s entry into LDF at a later stage. For the moment they want Veerendrakumar’s party to extend cooperation to the ruling front.
Veerendrakumar thanked the LDF leadership for considering his candidature for the coming RS polls.
The LDF decided to hold election convention for the forthcoming Chengannur bypoll on March 20. Chief minister and all top leaders of LDF will take part in the election convention.
