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Congress, KC(M) fail to reach pact

Girish Menon

United Democratic Front panel to take up disputes on seat-sharing today

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The seat-sharing talks between the Kerala Congress (M) and the Congress for the coming local bodies elections have run aground following disputes regarding the number and the constituencies the two are to contest in their strongholds in Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts.

The dispute is mainly on sharing of seats in the district panchayats of Kottayam and Pathanamthitta, though an agreement of sorts has been arrived at in the grama panchayats, block panchayats and municipalities.

The dispute will now be taken up at the State-level coordination committee on Monday.

The KC(M) has staked its claim to the Puthupally, Arpoorkara and Kanjirapally wards in Kottayam district panchayat and two other seats, including Kozhencherry in Pathanamthitta district panchayat. The KC(M) has demanded 11 of the 23 wards in Kottayam and four out of the 17 seats in Pathanamthitta. These include the nine the party had won in Kottayam and one in Pathanamthitta in 2000.

According to Kerala Congress sources, there was a general agreement about eight seats the party would contest. These are Ettumanur, Kaduthuruthy, Uzhavoor, Meenachil, Erattupetta, Pallikalthode, Kannazha and Vazhapilly (formerly Payipaad). There were 21 wards in Kottayam district panchayat in 2000, the two additions being Arpookara and Puthupally in the recent delimitation of wards. The Janadhipathya Samrakshna Samithy and the Indian Union Muslim League contested one seat each in 2000. The Ettumanur seat is reserved for women from the Scheduled Castes like last time, but there are changes in the boundaries under the new delimitation of wards.

In Pathanamthitta, the Kerala Congress(M) is angling for the Kozhencherry seat, which it says was given to the Congress in the 2000 elections. The party has also demanded a share in the seats that had been with the erstwhile Kerala Congress (Jacob), which has since merged with the Democratic Indira Congress (Karunakaran) soon after it left the United Democratic Front. The political punch line in the current tussle for Arpookara and Puthupally is that it happens to come under Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's Puthupally Assembly constituency. The dispute brings the Congress party into direct conflict with the KC(M) in Kottayam district.

Seat-sharing talks have by and large proceeded smoothly for the UDF in most of the districts. If at all there are any disputes, it is the Congress that is grappling with the ego clashes of some of its leaders. Kannur, Wayanad and Kasargod have faced hiccups, though the party's prospects of rebel menace are virtually non-existent.

The Congress leadership appears to have expected trouble in Kottayam because it nominated Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Water Resources Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and K.C. Joseph, MLA as ex-officio members of the team appointed to discuss seat-sharing and candidate selection. The tussle in Kottayam is between Anto Antony and Kurian Joy, both Mr. Chandy's close confidantes. In Kannur, the tussle appears to be between KPCC general secretary K. Sudhakaran and the rest of the district leaders.

"The potential rebels are out of the party. Those who are in the party know that sticking together is the survival mantra," according to a senior leader. The current troubles are not intractable, he asserted.

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