JD(U) plans to regain its political space

Party to adopt wait-and-watch policy till presidential elections are over

July 03, 2017 07:41 pm | Updated 07:41 pm IST - KOZHIKODE

The Janata Dal (United) has decided to adopt a wait-and-watch policy on shifting its political alliance till the elections to the offices of President and Vice President are over next month.

Party sources told The Hindu that the Kerala unit of the JD(U) would have to take a concrete decision on remaining within the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) or renewing its loyalties with the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).

The party has once again upped the ante on either the Kozhikode or Vadakara Lok Sabha seats for the party to contest in the 2019 general elections. A meeting to felicitate party State president M.P. Veerendrakumar in Kozhikode on Sunday saw senior party functionaries, including national secretary Varghese George, toughening their stance to resuscitate the party from its current political wilderness. The party is still discontent over the defeat of Mr. Veerendrakumar from the Palakkad Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 and has not yet convalesced after all its seven candidates suffered defeat in the Assembly polls last year.

An office- bearers’ meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram last week had discussed the possibility of reviving the Socialist Janata (Democratic) formed in 2009 after the Janata Dal ( Secular) parted ways with the LDF. Never before had the party faced such ignominy of being without a legislator in the Assembly since 1967. The party had about 400 members in the local bodies earlier, but now the number has dwindled to below 200.

The presidential elections has given an opportunity for the party leadership to take a firm stand unlike straddling between two coalitions, party sources said.

The Kerala unit has been disappointed over the decision of the national president to support the (NDA) National Democratic Alliance’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

However, a section of the JD(U) is strongly opposed to the party returning to the LDF fold. Many recollect how the CPI(M)-JD(S) ties came under strain in 2008 and the former refusing the ticket for the Kozhikode parliamentary constituency in the 2009 elections.

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