Thiruvananthapuram: Political turbulence has hit the Kerala Congress (M) with rumours of P.J. Joseph group breaking away and seeking the status of a separate constituent of the UDF amidst bargaining for the Assembly seats. However, Mr Joseph has denied the reports of his meeting Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in this connection.
Mr Joseph held telephonic discussions with KC(M) chairman K.M. Mani in the evening and assured him that he would not leave the UDF, but said he could not be sure of his two colleagues – Antony Raju and Francis George. Mr Joseph is not in good health to run the party and he wouldn’t block his colleagues from leaving, it is said.
A KC (M) leader told DC that most leaders of the Joseph faction would like to return to the LDF so that they would get seats in the Assembly elections.
The dissidents say that Mr Mani has been hit by ‘son-stroke’ and that it will ruin the party.
At the farmers’ march held before Parliament on Wednesday, the Joseph faction abstained giving rise to speculation that not all is well within the party.
Mr Francis George and Mr Antony Raju are keen to get Assembly seats. The latter who was a legislator from the then Trivandrum West seat in 2001 is eyeing the Thiruvananthapuram constituency. Mr. Raju had also stood with Mr Mani during the bar scam. Mr Francis George has been demanding Idukki Assembly seat where Mr Mani’s blue-eyed boy Roshy Augustine is the sitting MLA.
KC (M) sources told DC that both Mr Antony Raju and Mr Francis George are certain to get Thiruvananthapuram and Idukki seats if they part ways with the UDF and join the LDF.
“The LDF would be happy to field Francis George against Roshy in Idukki as the High Range Samrakshana Samithi had wanted him as the Lok Sabha candidate in 2014. He is widely accepted in Idukki. In the case of Antony Raju, the LDF would deny a seat to V. Surendran Pillai who lost to V. S. Sivakumar of Congress in 2011,” said a KC (M) source.
Mr Mani is keen to see that Mr Thomas Chazhikadan who was defeated at Ettumanoor constituency gets a safe seat at Kaduthuruthy. Sitting MLA Mons Joseph would be given Ettumanoor. But if the Joseph faction leaves the UDF, there won’t be any swapping of constituencies.
Congress starts discussion on candidate list
The Congress leadership will release its draft list of candidates on March 1. They have asked the DCC presidents to submit their list on Feb. 29. This was informed by KPCC president V. M. Sudheeran after holding talks with the three member sub-committee comprising DCC presidents, KPCC general secretaries in charge of 14 districts and KPCC secretaries.
The meeting was also attended by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Home minister Ramesh Chennithala.
The three member sub-committee will submit the first list of candidates on Feb. 28. Discussions will be held on the following day as well. Depending on this list, the three senior leaders will prepare the final list of candidates.
“In the meantime, the election committee meeting also has to be convened. Winnability and acceptability are the criteria for the candidates. We also intend to complete discussions with the allies at the earliest”, said Sudheeran to reporters.
He also alleged that a particular regional channel was misleading voters by releasing a list of candidates.
Regarding holding talks with Bharat Dharma Jana Sena, Sudheeran said that the Congress would not initiate it. He compared BDJS to a ‘still born’.
CPM to begin house visits in March
CPM will begin its election campaign from next month with house to house mass contact programme across the state.
The decision was taken at the state secretariat meeting here. The secretariat decided to start the formal campaign from first week of March and during the first phase party workers would be visiting each house in their locality to elicit their opinion on various issues and to convey party’s view.
During the proposed three day door to door campaign, the workers would be asked to spend a minimum of 5 minutes in each household.
The secretariat decided to convene district committee meetings to discuss poll preparations on the ground. The discussion on prospective candidates would be held only after the election notification is issued. During this period, the CPM woud also hold seat saring discusoins with other constituents of the LDF.
The party leadership felt that the present political climate was favourable for the LDF especially in the wake of serious corruption cases involving the ruling dispensation in connection with solar fraud and bar bribe case. Even the decision of the Congress High Command to not to project Oommen Chandy is seen as an admission of defeat, many in CPM circles believe.
According to party leaders, Chandy was going around boasting about his government’s major successes in infrastructure development, mega projects and and social welfare schemes. But the Congress national leadership does not seem to be convinced about projecting him as the chief minister and this was advantageous for the opposition LDF.
The CPM leadership is keeping a close watch on the BJP-RSS considering the fact that the saffron brigade was making a strong bid to enter Assembly. Even though Vellapally Natesan factor failed to help the BJP during the recent local bodies poll, RSS is keen on strengthening the tieup with BDJS.
