The Hindu : Two seats may become bone of contention in Congress

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 09, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Two seats may become bone of contention in Congress

By Girish Menon

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MARCH. 8. The Mukundapuram and Kozhikode seats are likely to be a bone of contention that the KPCC election committee and the Congress Central Election Committee would have to contend with while distributing tickets for the 17 constituency that the Congress would contest in the Lok Sabha elections.

This has become clear from the proceedings of the KPCC election committee and its sub-committee, where the anti-Karunakaran factions, led by the AICC general secretary, Vayalar Ravi and another ticket aspirant, P. C. Chacko, put up roadblocks against the attempts to thrash out a unanimous list. The Congress deputy leader in the Assemly, M. P. Gangadharan, also joined the fray by coming out openly against giving a larger share of accommodation to Mr. Karunakaran's nominee.

The Congress leadership has already taken the decision to give tickets to sitting MPs. The Mukundapuram and Kozhikode seats that the Congress held in the just dissolved Lok Sabha have become open, with Mr. Karunakaran unlikely to contest this time, the Electricity Minister, K Muraleedharan contesting for the Assembly. The Karunakaran faction wants to field Padmaja Venugopal from Mukundapuram and V. Balaram from Kozhikode in return for his favour of vacating the Wadakkancherry seat for Mr. Muraleedharan to seek entry into the Assembly.

As a result of the failure of the KPCC sub-committee to reach a consensus, it has become almost certain that the State Election Committee would submit a panel of names for several seats. Whatever decision the high command may take on the candidates to be fielded for the two seats, it is clear it would be in the backdrop of the unity formula thrashed out to end the torrid factional fights.

The terms of the formula is not fully known, but as part of the settlement, Mr. Muraleedharan was inducted into the Antony Cabinet, while being assured of a safe seat to contest for Assembly. This part has been already implemented. The Chief Minister has dropped hints that Mr. Karunakaran could not be ignored and his opinions would be given due consideration while preparing the candidates' list. The Chief Minister's statement that the Congress would be routed if it failed to face the election unitedly has been interpreted as a caution to his supporters against upsetting the brittle unity in the party.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala

News Update

Stories in this Section

HC declines to stay order on Coke unit

Selection of rights panel members: court seeks files

Arrangements complete for higher secondary exams

Huge ST default by online lottery firms: VS

Two seats may become bone of contention in Congress

LDF seeks ban on Advani's rath yatra

A. Vijayaraghavan is LDF nominee for Rajya Sabha poll

Film production activity comes to a standstill

Commission

VS parries questions on party `row'

`Film stars to join BJP today'

Briefly