The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : SP asks for UDF berth, Lok Sabha seat

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Saturday, Jul 26, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

SP asks for UDF berth, Lok Sabha seat

K.P.M. Basheer

Two State parties will merge with the SP, says leader

KOCHI: Encouraged by the United Progressive Alliance’s winning of the confidence vote in Parliament on Tuesday with the Samajwadi Party’s support, the party’s State unit is hoping to be accommodated in the UDF camp.

Its Kerala general secretary Khader Malippuram told The Hindu that his central leadership would soon formally ask the UDF for a berth. It would also ask for a Lok Sabha seat to contest in the upcoming general election. Mr. Malippuram said his party preferred the Alappuzha seat.

He said the SP naturally expected the Congress and the UPA to return the favour for supporting them at a very critical time. Had it been not for the SP, the Manmohan Singh government would have been out of power, he added.He said the SP was the party the Congress and the UPA could most rely upon in the Lok Sabha elections and claimed that its support in Kerala would be invaluable for the Congress.

Merger plans

He also claimed that two Kerala parties would soon merge with the SP. Hardly two months ago, the SP’s top leaders Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh had urged senior CPI(M) leaders to accommodate the SP in Kerala’s ruling coalition, the LDF. This was in anticipation of the Veerendrakumar-led Janata Dal (Secular)’s merger with the SP. The JD(S), which is currently an LDF partner, had wanted to continue to stay with the LDF even after the merger. The LDF had cautioned the JD(S) not to go ahead with the merger lest it should be sent out from the Left camp.

The fast-changing political manoeuvres in Delhi prior to the confidence vote changed the SP’s and JD(S)’s political standpoints and made the proposed merger irrelevant. Mr. Veerendrakumar, who announced that he would oppose the confidence vote, also said he was calling off the merger move. The JD(S) at the national level, led by H.D. Deve Gowda, from which Mr. Veerendrakumar’s faction had broken away, voted against the motion. Now, Veerendrakumar has found favours in the Deve Gowda faction and needs no other national party to ally with in order to save his Lok Sabha seat.

Interestingly, the SP’s State unit had several times in the past approached the LDF to take it in, but was turned away every time.

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