A delegation of legislators belonging to the Kerala Congress(M), the third largest party in the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF), met Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday to press for its demand for the Idukki Lok Sabha seat, besides demanding urgent action to get the Centre to cancel its controversial order identifying 123 villages in the State as ecologically sensitive areas (ESA).
The move appeared to be a new strategy adopted by the party, making the K. Kasturirangan report and the controversial November 2013 order the focal point of its bid to get an additional seat.
It is significant that the KC(M) leader and Finance Minister K. M. Mani led the delegation.
Officially, Mr. Mani maintained that the delegation had discussed only the Kasturirangan report.
But it is reliably learnt that Mr. Mani brought up the issue of Idukki seats and laid out his formula to justify his claim.
With regard to the Kasturirangan report, Mr. Mani stressed the imperatives of getting the November 19, 2013 order on the ESA villages cancelled before the notification for the Lok Sabha election. If this is not possible, the UDF government should put pressure on the Centre to at least stay its operation.
The KC(M) appears to have been prompted to go on the offensive by two other reasons. The first is the confrontationist attitude of the Catholic Church, which has been spearheading an agitation against the implementation of the report.
The Church has been critical of the Congress party and is strongly opposed to its incumbent MP P.T. Thomas. Moreover, the UDF leadership cannot be oblivious to the CPI(M)’s overtures to the Catholic Church in recent weeks, KC(M) sources feel.
The second is the installation of V.M. Sudheeran as KPCC president. Mr. Sudheeran, who is due to join the seat-sharing discussions to be resumed next week, is known for his support for the Kasturirangan committee report. He is also known to be assertive when it comes to protecting the Congress party’s interests.
The KC(M) is not too sure that its demand for an additional seat will find favour with Mr. Sudheeran . In the two previous seat-sharing talks, the party did not take a strong stand while demanding an additional seat. On Wednesday, the assertiveness of the party leadership, while staking its claim for Idukki, was displayed in its formula based on the relative strength of the Congress and the KC(M) in the current Assembly.
