LDF members CPI, KC (Mani) set to contest RS seats
As per the current strength in the Kerala assembly, the LDF, which has 99 out of 140 MLAs, can win two of the three RS seats from the state
Kochi: The Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Kerala Congress (Mani) will contest two out of the three Rajya Sabha seats in Kerala that will fall vacant on July 1 as part of the Left Democratic Front (LDF), its convenor EP Jayarajan announced on Monday in Thiruvananthapuram.
As per the current strength in the Kerala Assembly, the LDF, which has 99 out of 140 MLAs, can win two of the three RS seats from the state. The opposition Congress-led UDF, which has 41 MLAs, can win the remaining seat.
The June 25 polls in Kerala have been necessitated by the end of the six-year tenures of Elamaram Kareem (CPI(M)), Jose K Mani (KC(M)), and Binoy Viswam (CPI).
“We held discussions with all constituents of the LDF. Naturally, all parties can raise their rightful demands. After hearing all of them, the LDF has decided to allocate one seat to the CPI and the other to Kerala Congress (M). The two parties have been urged to declare their candidates and file the nominations as soon as possible,” he said. “It is important to maintain the unity, strength and the expansive ideological base of the LDF in today’s political climate in the state.”
Though CPI(M) held one of the outgoing seats and has the singular strength in the assembly to nominate its own member, the party decided to sacrifice it for the sake of coalition politics, Jayarajan underlined.
“Even though the CPI(M) can elect a member to the Rajya Sabha on the basis of its own strength in assembly, it has decided not to do so as it believes in holding aloft the importance of running coalitions in the country,” the senior CPM leader said.
The KC(M), which has five MLAs and a voter-base consisting primarily of farmers and Catholics in the central Travancore region, is expected to renominate its chairman, Jose K Mani.
Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which is part of the LDF and had raised its demand for a Rajya Sabha seat, is miffed with the ‘apathy’ towards it and is expected to convene soon to decide future course of action. The party has one MLA and zero representation in the state cabinet.
IUML to field Haris Beeran in RS polls
The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which was allocated the RS berth as part of the UDF, decided to field Supreme Court advocate Haris Beeran for the poll. Beeran is the Delhi unit president of the Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC), an expatriate unit of the party.
Beeran has represented the IUML in several petitions in the top court including its pleas against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Even though names of Youth League general secretary PK Firos and IUML state general secretary PMA Salam did the rounds, the party eventually chose Beeran in the light of his contacts in Delhi and his legal abilities.
