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Kerala BJP can make gains from unrest in Congress, UDF over RS seat to Mani
June 8, 2018
Kochi: It is advantage BJP as Congress is in turmoil as also the United Democratic Front (UDF) it leads in Kerala after the allocation of Rajya Sabha seat to Kerala Congress (M).has The whole situation is explosive and can even lead to even split in Congress or UDF at a later stage, which could turn favourable to the BJP.
It all started in the name of Rajya Sabha seat with some youth MLAs joining hands to oppose the monopoly of a few leaders continuously occupying some posts.
This turned out to be an opportunity for Kerala Congress to bargain for the seat for which its chief K M Mani got the backing of his best pal P K Kunhalikutty of IUML.
The Muslim League MP went to the extent of flaying Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala of Congress for his inability to keep the front united, sending alarms in Congress circles.
Political pundits see this as the game plan of AICC general secretary and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to cut Chennithala o size as a retribution to his operations to shunt Chandy out of Kerala politics.
Congress succumbed to the pressure of KCM and IUML and parted with the Rajya Sabha seat which has gone to KCM which has also been assured of the Parliament seat of Kottayam in the next Lok Sabha polls. This was part of the deal to ensure that KCM joined UDF before the Lok Sabha election.
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Congress leaders, including Chandy, Chennithala and KPCC president M M Hassan were under tremendous pressure not to part with the Rajya Sabha seat. They reminded the interlocutors of newspaper owner M P Veerendra Kumar of Janata Dal winning the Rajya Sabha seat with Congress support and later shifting allegiance to CPM.
KCM had made the Rajya Sabha and Kottayam Lok Sabha seats pre-conditions to rejoin UDF which it had left accusing Congress of back stabbing it in the bribery cases against Mani. But their meeting with Congress president Rahul Gandhi changed the entire scene. Rahul was miffed over the clash between youth and senior leaders in the party.
Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) general secretary Vellappally Natesan told reporters that KCM had won against UDF which had become very frail as there was no leader. He said Congress would perish in the State due to infighting.
Controversial Independent MLA P C George said it appeared that Congress would merge with KCM which itself was counting its days. The party was going to split vertically in the coming days which would see the end of Mani era.
Meanwhile, Kerala Youth Congress leader Dean Kuriakose told The Covai Post that the party had been shamed on the RS seat issue. It had demoralised party leaders and workers.
Flaying Natesan, he said the decision had only helped fascists like him.
The Congress leadership should have taken a decision on the issue much before and apprised the party cadre and the public, he added.
