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Crisis in LDF over seat-sharing deepens

CPI assistant secretary K.E. Ismail briefs the press after the party’s State executive meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The crisis in the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) has deepened with the resignation of Transport Minister Mathew T. Thomas and Communist Party of India’s refusal to accept the Ponnani Lok Sabha seat with Husein Randathani as the LDF candidate.

Mr. Thomas, the lone Janata Dal (Secular) representative in the LDF Cabinet, submitted his resignation letter to Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan on Monday evening on the basis of a direction from JD(S) State president M. P. Veerendralumar after the Communist Party of India (Marxist) formally informed the party that it must take Wayanad in lieu of Kozhikode, a decision that the JD(S) leadership found unacceptable.

Addressing a news conference in Kozhikode, Mr. Veerendrakumar termed the CPI(M) decision ‘political indefensible’ and against all norms of political morality and said the JD(S) State committee meeting at Kozhikode on Wednesday would decide the party’s future course of action.

The CPI State executive committee, which met here in the afternoon, was of the view that it would be unwise to stick with the party’s demand for the Ponnani seat given the CPI(M) decision not to tinker with Mr. Randathani’s candidature. The executive committee’s decision was to request the CPI(M) for a change of seat.

The decision was communicated to the CPI(M) leadership by a two-member delegation comprising Food Minister C. Divakaran and K.E. Ismail, MP, who held two rounds of discussions with CPI(M) leaders during the course of the day. Although constant communication was maintained between the two sides later in the evening as well, they could not arrive at any decision.

Talking to The Hindu, highly placed sources in the CPI(M) firmly ruled out the possibility of the party asking Mr. Randathani to step out of the fray and expressed confidence that it would be possible to find an amicable solution to the dispute with the CPI through dialogue over the coming two days. The CPI(M) leaders did not appear particularly perturbed over the JD(S) decision to pull out its Minister and insisted that the party could not give Kozhikode to the JD(S) as that would have meant certain loss of the seat.

The CPI State executive committee has authorised the party State secretariat to take appropriate decision in the matter. The CPI secretariat too is scheduled to meet here on Wednesday.

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