: Leaders who have been short-changed by their respective coalitions or parties are now busy cooking up survival plans and remain in the fray for the May 16 Assembly elections. The affected are mainly those who belong to the Kerala Congress “streams.”
Cold shoulder
The first one to suffer the cold-shouldering this time was the acerbic P.C. George when the Left Democratic Front (LDF) denied him a slot in his traditional Poonjar constituency.
Mr. George has decided to contest Poonjar in any case, hoping against hope that he would succeed in cracking the bipolar politics of the constituency. However, he has not indicated any plans to align with the Bharaitya Janata Party following in the footsteps of another Kerala Congress leader P.C. Thomas. Former Minister V. Surendran Pillai, working president of the Kerala Congress (Scaria), a residual party with the LDF, found himself out in the cold just as Mr. George. Both were affected by the last-minute shifts in Kerala Congress (M) politics and the arrival of Francis George and his supporters in the LDF fold.
The LDF found more utility in Francis George’s Kerala Congress (Democratic) and allotted it the Thiruvanathapuram constituency.
According to latest reports, Mr. Pillai is preparing for a somersault. If his new moves bear fruit, he might emerge as the Janata Dal (U) candidate in Nemom. He has announced his resignation as working president of the KC (Scaria), besides making the right noises about aligning with secular democratic forces. The slot is more or less made to order for him, it appears.
Kerala Congress (Jacob) chairman Johny Nelloor’s case would go down as the most tragic.
He led the bilateral seat-sharing talks with the Congress on behalf of his party, with a confidence that he would get the Angamaly seat he contested unsuccessfully last time.
Sit out
But as the talks progressed, it became clear that the staunch UDF man will have to sit out. His party had to be satisfied with just one seat — Piravom. A visibly embarrassed Mr. Nelloor is now planning to contest from either Kothamangalam or Muvattupuzha. But he is still groping for some straw to clutch to stay politically afloat since the LDF had not finalised its candidate from Kothamangalam.
But CPI(M) district secretary P. Rajiv came out against Mr. Nelloor. Mr. Nelloor, as if to put pressure, made vague comments that there was no untouchability in politics.
