LDF sees opportunity in Congress-IUML ‘inconclusive’ LS seat-sharing talks

LDF convener E.P. Jayarajan accuses the Congress for giving the IUML the brush off and says League could win more than three seats if it could mustered the confidence to go it alone

The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) seems to have discerned a window of opportunity to wring some political advantage from the purportedly inconclusive negotiations between the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) over Lok Sabha seat sharing.

IUML leader P.K. Kunhalikutty’s somewhat cryptic statement about the outcome of the talks in Kochi came in handy for the LDF. On the face of it, Mr. Kunhalikutty peddled the United Democratic Front (UDF) official line that the exchanges were satisfactory. But he added a somewhat cryptic rider that appeared to manifest as a cleverly camouflaged witticism. Mr. Kunhalikutty pointed out that satisfaction and happiness were not the same.

LDF convener E.P. Jayarajan seized on the politically loaded statement to gain a whip hand over the United Democratic Front (UDF). Speaking to reporters in Kannur, Mr. Jayarajan assailed the Congress for “giving” the IUML the brush off. He accused the Congress leadership of repeatedly running rings around the IUML by slyly and perennially confining the key UDF ally to two LS seats since 1962. Mr. Jayarajan said the IUML deserved more than three seats and could easily win them if the party mustered the confidence to go it alone. He claimed that the Congress could not notch up a single seat in the State without IUML’s support.

Soft Hindutva

Mr. Jayarajan postulated that the Congress sought to maintain its “soft Hindutva” political optics by wilfully keeping the IUML away from the Samaragni campaign venues.

A UDF insider posited that the IUML’s demand for a third seat also underscored the “glaring anomaly” that none of the incumbent MPs the Congress hoped to field again were from the electorally crucial Muslim community. He claimed the oddity weighed heavily on the Congress.

In stark contrast, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] has four members from the minority community on its provisional list of LS candidates. Mr. Jayarajan’s words reflected the LDF’s strategy to diminish the Congress’s traditional standing with the Muslim community and galvanise the opinion of the minority community in the CPI(M)‘s favour. Notably, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in Kannur on Saturday that a vote for the Congress was tantamount to an endorsement for the BJP. Given the “blurred ideological boundary” between the two parties, Mr. Vijayan said, the Congress and its allies had no qualms about crossing over to the BJP.

Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala accused the CPI(M) of attempting to fish in muddied waters.