In a bid to settle outstanding issues of the constituent partners, the UDF meeting held here on Thursday appointed Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala to hold discussions with coalition partners on October 28.
The UDF coordination committee meeting held after a gap of three months witnessed heated arguments with the UDF partners including IUML, KC(M), KC(B) and KC(Jacob) alleging that the internal squabbles in the Congress party has caused a dent in the image of the UDF Government prior to the Lok Sabha polls. The open airing of views by UDF partners against the Congress and the government relating to the solar scam was also raised in the meeting.
KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala intervened after P K Kunhalikutty, P C George, R Balakrishna Pillai and Johny Neloor aired similar remarks suggesting that the problems within the Congress was causing problems for the UDF Government. Chennithala, who admitted that there were problems within the Congress party, said that all issues would be settled amicably. Chandy and Chennithala urged the UDF partners to work unitedly and prepare the UDF for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Kerala Congress (B) leader R Balakrishna Pillai demanded that the issues regarding the ministerial berth for K B Ganesh Kumar should be discussed separately with KC (B) as the issue was discussed earlier in the UDF meet.
In the meeting, strong reservations were expressed by some UDF partners about the working style of Home Minister Thirvanchoor Radhakrishnan.
Briefing mediapersons, UDF convenor P P Thankachan admitted that ‘’some UDF partners have problems’’ and the meet appointed KPCC president and Chief Minister to iron out the differences.
‘’The meeting scheduled for October 28 with coalition partners will discuss the outstanding issues including that of reconstitution of corporations and boards. The UDF meeting will be held on the same day after the separate meetings with the coalition partners,’’ he said.
The UDF convenor said that entry of K B Ganesh Kumar was not discussed in the meet. He said that the UDF has appointed a sub-committee to suggest amendments to the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act.
The UDF meet also gave political clearance to the proposal of the Labour Department for increasing the appointment age for government service by five years, uniformly across various reservation categories.