THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Putting all speculations to rest, the JD(U)-Sharad Yadav faction state unit led by M P Veerendra Kumar is poised to land in the LDF fold in a few days, after severing the nine-year-old political ties with the Congress-led UDF. If all goes well, in return, even without any MLA in its fold, the JD(U) will be gifted with a Rajya Sabha seat, fallen vacant with the resignation of Veerendra Kumar recently.
M V Sreyams Kumar, son of Veerendra Kumar, will pick the slot for the remaining four years if the latter is not interested. The state committee and the state council of the outfit, which is meeting here on January 11 and 12 respectively, is likely to formalise the re-anointing of the group in the Left camp.
None other than Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who had kicked the Janata leader and team away from the Left fold by his few disparaging remarks prior to the 2009 Lok Sabha polls when he was the party secretary, is instrumental on the former’s return.
The compulsions of the CPM to post victories in a maximum number of Lok Sabha seats in the coming elections on the one hand and the fact that JD(U), which mainly draws its existential support from pockets of Malabar on the other, have cemented the deal. Interestingly, the Left is not bothered at the stance of the JD(U)-SY state leadership that it would continue in the Congress-led grand alliance of opposition parties at the national level.
It is reliably learnt the CPM has also offered the Vadakara Lok Sabha seat to Janata Dal. Former minister K P Mohanan, who was dead opposed to aligning with the Left, was prevailed upon with an assurance that he will be fielded as the party candidate from the Vadakara seat in the next Lok Sabha polls, it is reliably learnt. The ties between the former JD(U) faction and the Congress worsened after Veerendra Kumar lost miserably in the 2014 Palakkad Lok Sabha polls to the CPM candidate. His feelings were assuaged by gifting an RS seat later, but the outfit found it quite difficult to gel with the UDF satraps at the grassroots-level in various parts of the state.
The recent JD(U) split at the national level and the alliance forged by Nitish Kumar with the BJP came in handy for Veerendra Kumar, who was quick to declare that he would not hold the RS seat bagged as a nominee of the party, as the Election Commission recognised faction was the one led by the Bihar Chief Minister. However, the outfit will have to do a lot of explaining on its choice of the RS nominee in the upcoming polls from the state, buttressing clever political expediency in a new pitch.
Interestingly, the Left is not bothered at the stance of the JD(U)-SY state leadership that it would continue in the Congress-led grand alliance of opposition parties at the national level.