The Hindu : Kerala News : Kerala Congress factions on their way out of UDF?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Kerala Congress factions on their way out of UDF?

By Girish Menon

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JAN. 30 . The Kerala Congress (Jacob), Kerala Congress (B) and the Thamarakshan faction of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (Bolshevik) are on their way out of the UDF. The ruling coalition's leadership has initiated the exercise to oust them, with the UDF convener, P. P. Thankachan, separately meeting the leaders of these parties on the directions of the Chief Minister, Oommen Chandy.

The positions the three take in the Assembly during the course of debates in the coming weeks will decide whether there will be a second round at all. Mr. Thankachan's message to R. Balakrishna Pillai, T. M. Jacob and A. V. Thamarakshan was that it would be difficult for the three parties to continue in the ruling United Democratic Front if they were to tread the rebellious path.

He urged the three parties to cooperate with the UDF leadership during the Assembly debates. He also promised to hold discussions on the distribution of posts lying vacant in corporations and boards. In the case of the Thamarakshan faction, the UDF made it clear that it preferred to work with the other faction led by the Labour Minister, Babu Divakaran.

The response of the faction leaders to Mr. Thankachan's efforts hardly left anyone in doubt that the parting of ways will take place in a few days. "As far as we are concerned, the door has been open for some time. We will consider ourselves lucky if we are ousted," said one of the leaders of the constituent parties, suggesting that his party would not go out on its own. He said as far as he was concerned, the relations between the Chief Minister and his party had soured beyond repair. "Our representatives on the director boards of various corporations have been removed. What is there for us in the UDF?" he asked.

The Chief Minister apparently feels that he no longer shares a working relationship with the three parties, which did not send representatives to the previous UDF liaison committee meeting. They have been openly criticising him and his decisions.

A case in point was Mr. Jacob's deposition before the Kozhikode Vigilance Court in a bribery case in which he tried to indict Mr. Chandy.

The UDF leadership appears to be in a hurry to take a decision as it expects the leaders to take rather strong positions against the Government during the debates, the first in the series being the motion of thanks to the Governor's Address starting from tomorrow.

Mr. Chandy kept Mr. Pillai and Mr. Jacob out of the Cabinet, reportedly for the intractable position they had taken during the last Lok Sabha elections, which found the ruling UDF taking one of its worst drubbings.

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

Kerala