The latest addition to UDF’s long list of woes

April 19, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 07:42 am IST - Thiruvananthapuram:

Another crisis is looming large for the United Democratic Front (UDF) with the Janata Dal (United) openly expressing its dissatisfaction at the manner in which it is being treated in the front.

The outcome of the Janata Dal (U)’s State-level meeting in Kozhikode sends a clear message to the UDF leadership, particularly the Congress. The manner in which Janata Dal (U) State president M.P. Veerendrakumar expressed his party’s dissatisfaction indicated that it would not lie low anymore.

Officially, the demand is to publish the UDF subcommittee report on the defeat of Mr. Veerendrakumar from the Palakkad Lok Sabha seat. The committee, which was headed by R. Balakrishna Pillai, when he was part of the UDF, had put the District Congress Committee in the dock for Mr. Veerendrakumar’s defeat. The JD(U) complaint is that the report was never taken up for discussion and resolution.

‘Sidelined’

It says it was sidelined in the UDF dispensation and that it did not get the consideration granted to the Revolutionary Socialist Party, another former Left Democratic Front (LDF) partner that made a lateral entry into the ruling coalition in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

However, Mr. Veerendrakumar did state that his party did not intend to upset the applecart for now. It would remain in the UDF, vote for its candidates in the Rajya Sabha elections, and perform its duties as a partner. He precluded any debate on whether his party would return to the LDF, which most Janata leaders consider a natural ally.

The Janata Dal (U)’s stance was in making ever since it gathered muscle after the merger of the scattered Janata Parivar. If Mr. Veerendrakumar has adopted a moderate stance, it is because the new party, Samajwadi Janata Dal, needs more clarity in the directions it has to take at the national level, where it has to contend with a Narendra Modi-led BJP, and at the State level where it needs to choose allies according to regional requirement.

Besides, the JD(U) is yet to get an official invitation to return to the LDF. These are political developments that will take time, but the UDF, particularly the Congress, is bound to have a tough time keeping the coalition intact.

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