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Karunakaran calls for tie-up with LDF

By Our Special Correspondent

KOCHI, FEB. 5. The senior Congress leader, K. Karunakaran, has suggested that the party high command go in for a tie-up with the LDF in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

``I feel that it would be good if an electoral understanding is made with the LDF,'' he told presspersons here on his return from New Delhi on Thursday. This, he said, would ensure the victory of all Congress candidates. "After all, there would be such tie-ups in other States; then, why not here?"

Mr. Karunakaran said he would not form a new party ``until the elections." Putting a rider to the decision, he insisted that half of the Lok Sabha seats in the Congress kitty should be allotted to his faction by the party high command. (Which works out to eight seats, as, conventionally, the UDF earmarks 16 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala to the Congress, its main constituent.)

Mr. Karunakaran, at a convention of his faction held in Thiruvananthapuram on January 28, had announced that he was going to break off from the Congress and launch a new party. ``If half of the seats are not given to us, a new party would be launched the next day,'' Mr. Karunakaran told presspersons here this afternoon. He arrived here this morning after attending the last session of the 13th Lok Sabha and holding talks with senior Congress party leaders. He did not want the `Third and Fourth groups in the party' be given any seat and if anyone insisted on it, the Antony faction could share its seats with these groups.

Signalling that he had bought temporary peace with the party high command and received certain face-saving offers during his Delhi visit, Mr. Karunakaran said the KPCC president should be selected from his faction. "The party headship should be in the `I' group's hands,'' he said. Asked about the Mukundapuram Lok Sabha seat which he held last time, Mr. Karunakaran said he would decide to whom the seat would be allotted. Mr. Karunakaran said that while in Delhi, he had talks with senior Congress leaders such as R.K. Dhawan and Ghulam Nabi Azad. Asked about the `political situation in Delhi', he said it was `confused'. Had he clinched a deal with them? ``Not yet; let's see." Mr. Karunakaran agreed that his recent moves had created some confusion in his ranks and vowed that his future moves would be very careful. ``I will make every move in the future only after careful consideration.'' He said there were several `Chandus' (traitors to the cause) in his camp. Asked if he regretted his last couple of moves as they had gone off the rail, Mr. Karunakaran said basically they were all right moves.

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