THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It’s final. Janata Dal (United) - Sharad Yadav faction led by M P Veerendra Kumar has ended its months-long vacillation to say quits from the Congress-led UDF and turn Left.
The party state office-bearers’ meet, followed by a meeting of the state secretariat on Thursday formally resolved to end its nine-year-old ties with the UDF and migrate to the LDF, which could also set the tracks for further political poaching and realignments in the bipolar politics of the state ahead of the nearing Lok Sabha polls.
The state council of the JD(U) faction will stamp the migration, when it assembles on Friday.
Express had reported the other day that the Janata Dal (U)-SY was going to break its ties with the UDF and join the Left fold.
At Thursday’s meet, all the 14 district presidents and a vast majority of state office-bearers seconded Veerendra Kumar, when he dropped many hints and an assessment that it’s a ripe time to take a final call for the beleaguered outfit and move out from the UDF. He told the office-bearers that preliminary round of talks has been held with the LDF leadership and a new political environment under the Left shade is essential for the party to take roots.
The meeting was not devoid of a jarring note, while a district secretary from Palakkad, staged a walkout in protest against the move, after declaring his resignation from the party.
The opposition expressed earlier by former minister K P Mohanan and Kozhikode district president Manayath Chandran against the moves had also melted down, against the backdrop of offers reportedly dangled by the LDF for a coalition switchover. The guarantees believed to have gone from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan,despite holding it back in the open, has given the right impetus for JD (U)-SY shift in its political stance. The LDF is also unmindful of the outfit continuing in the Congress-led grand alliance at the national level.
As reported by Express, the Rajya Sabha seat lying vacant after Veerendra Kumar put up his papers recently,will be picked up by either himself or his media honcho son M V Sreyams Kumar,for the remaining four years of the total six-year term. Veerendra Kumar,who had won the RS seat on a UDF ticket, had stage-managed an ace short-cut to retain the seat, as the Left was wooing the JD(U) for quite some time.
While resigning his RS seat, he had maintained that since the Election Commission has only recognized the Nitish Kumar faction of JD(U) after the recent split, and his continuance without being caught before any future whips issued would be at the latter’s mercy and he does not want to have any sort of truck with the BJP. Nitish had joined the BJP bandwagon,throwing the Congress-led grand alliance rickety in Bihar.
Apart from the RS seat,for which there is not even a single JD(U) MLA to vote for in the state, the party is looking at the prospect of contesting the Vadakara Lok Sabha seat in the next polls and grabbing an assurance for not less than half a dozen seats, to be in the Assembly poll fray.