The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : KC(M) claims supremacy in Idukki, Kottayam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 29, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

KC(M) claims supremacy in Idukki, Kottayam

Special Correspondent

K.M. Mani

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Congress (M) appears to have made major headway in Kottayam and Idukki districts, capturing several village panchayats in triangular contests that went by the name of friendly contests with the Congress.

According to Kerala Congress leaders, the party has won 490 village panchayats wards out of the more than 500 it contested. In block panchayats, the party won all the 57 wards it contested, while in the Kottayam district panchayat, it won 10 out of the 11 it contested.

Friendly contests were witnessed in Karoor, Melkavu, Mooniravu, Ramapuram, and Thidanad coming under the Palai belt.

The contests were the outcome of the difficulty of the Congress and the Kerala Congress (M) to arrive at a seat-sharing agreement.

The Kerala Congress (M) demanded more seats commensurate to its strength consequent to the merger with the Kerala Congress (Joseph).

While the Congress conceded most of the seats won by the Kerala Congress (Joseph) when it contested as an LDF ally, it disputed the claim of Kerala Congress (M) in some seats, besides asking for winning ones.

Several rounds of discussions failed to bring about a resolution, following which the two parties decided to test the ground by going it alone.

According to sources, the Kottayam experiment clearly showed that the CPI(M) cannot benefit from the three-cornered contest as seen in many other wards across the States. The Kerala Congress (M) leaders maintain that this was because of their unassailable presence in these areas. The results in Kottayam and Idukki clearly establish the Kerala Congress (M)'s supremacy in the district, they said.

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

Kerala