KOCHI: After its demand for a second seat in the coming Lok Sabha elections was turned down by the LDF, the Kerala Congress (M) plans to stake claim for a Rajya Sabha seat for party chairman Jose K Mani, whose tenure will expire in July.
Three RS seats from Kerala will fall vacant in July when, besides Jose, CPM’s Elamaram Kareem and CPI’s Binoy Viswam retire from the upper house of Parliament. As per the current strength in the state assembly, the ruling LDF can win two seats, and the UDF one.
Political analysts feel the KC(M) demanded an extra seat besides its sitting seat of Kottayam in the LS polls as part of a strategy to keep alive its claim for the RS seat. Jose, who lost from his family’s pocket borough — Pala — in the 2021 assembly elections, will be left without any parliamentary post if he is denied a Rajya Sabha seat in July. The party had requested either Pathanamthitta or Idukki for the LS elections. However, the CPM made it clear in the LDF meeting that it had already given up one of its 16 seats for the KC(M) and could not yield any more. The KC(M) had sent a letter to the LDF leadership requesting an additional seat, but CM Pinarayi Vijayan firmly ruled it out.
The key question is whether the CPM will relinquish one seat to accommodate Jose in the Rajya Sabha. Considering the significance of KC(M) in the front, it is possible that the CPM may make this adjustment as the possibility of the CPI compromising is slim.
Meanwhile, KC(M) general secretary Stephen George said it’s premature to comment. “There is no question of ditching the seat. The RS term will expire in July and it will take three-four months for the new notification to be issued. Hence, there is enough time to hold talks in this regard,” he said.