THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:The process of addressing the grievances of the JD(U) and its state president M P Veerendra Kumar on being sidelined and under rated in the UDF, took another positive step on Tuesday ,with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and KPCC president V M Sudheeran making a determined bid to keep the outfit in good humour.
A couple of days after Chandy set in motion the process for a thaw, the baton for reconciliation talks was taken up earlier in the day by Ramesh and Sudheeran.
With a sole agenda to prevent the JD(U) from creating fissures in the UDF and also make the survival of the Oommen Chandy Government tough, and the LDF keenly watching the developments, Chandy-Sudheeran-Ramesh trio decided to hold further talks amongst themselves and once again with the JD(U) leadership on Tuesday itself. UDF convenor P P Thankachan also joined them in the talks held at the KPCC office.
After finishing the multilateral talks with the JD(U) chief at the end of the day in the Cliff House, Oommen Chandy told mediapersons that the UDF panel report on the Palakkad Lok Sabha poll debacle is expected on May 9. ‘’Decisions based on it would be taken,’’ he said. Chandy also said that the fact that the JD(U) has not got adequate representation at the lower level committees as in the state-level would be solved soon.
“We admit that it was a lapse. It is the Congress which has to take the lead to rectify it. The JD(U) will also be given its due share of seats in the local bodies polls. In the last local bodies polls, JD(U) had only cooperation with the UDF and not a formal ally. It is not the case now’’, he said.
Ramesh Chennithala asserted that there were no two opinions that the JD(U) shall remain an integral part of the UDF, V M Sudheeran said that issues raised by the Janata outfit will be given due consideration.
Ramesh, after holding talks with JD(U) state chief M P Veerendra Kumar here on Tuesday, said that in its four-year political tie-up with the UDF, the JD(U) had never posed any trouble or headache for the front. ‘’The political issues raised by JD(U) should be indeed subjected to serious deliberations. The topics raised has been taken up by the UDF in all its seriousness,’’ ,the minister said. ‘’Veerendra Kumar is a senior leader of the UDF. The talks were not based on any bargaining plank but on political issues,’’ Sudheeran said, adding that he cannot comment on the UDF panel report on Palakkad Lok Sabha poll debacle, without going through it.
‘’It has to be made available to the KPCC. A sincere and judicious decision will be taken then,’’ he said.
Veerendra Kumar said that it was heartening that the political issues put forth by the JD(U) has been imbibed in the same spirit.