The United Democratic Front (UDF) continues to struggle with seat-sharing talks in what have turned out to be intra-party and inter-party tussles. The intra-party tussle is basically in the Congress, with the Youth Congress, encouraged by certain senior leaders, putting pressure on the party leadership to consider its claim for a fair share of seats. Factional issues too have delayed candidate selection in several places.
The tussle between the IUML and the Congress in Malappuram, and the Kerala Congress and the Congress in Idukki and Kottayam seems to be far from over. With just two days left for filing of nomination papers, it appears that the disputing parties will contest the election on their own. The IUML and the Congress leadership in Malappuram want to settle issues, but local panchayat leaders have refused to fall in line. If the issues are not sorted out, the only matter to be decided is whether these parties would look for alliances outside the UDF framework.
As far as the Kerala Congress(M) is concerned, its leader K.M. Mani has made it very clear that he did not foresee any friendly contest in some of the panchayats in Kottayam district. The district leaders, according to report, have not been able to make much headway in the sorting out the issues.
Tough for smaller constituents
The smaller constituents are finding it difficult to push through their demands for accommodation in some of the districts such as Alappuzha. The JSS group led by Rajan Babu has issues with the Congress leaders in Alappuzha, while the RSP has some issues with the Congress in Thiruvananthapuram Corporation over the number of wards to be contested.
The factional tussles at the local level seem to be getting tougher. In Thrissur, Oommen Chandy supporters have opposed moves to project Cooperation Minister C.N. Balakrishnan’s daughter as the Mayoral candidate.
Senior UDF leaders do not find this unusual, since the coalition has always witnessed seat-sharing problems during election time. But they assert that the disputes would be sorted out by the time filing of nominations.
