THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Seat-sharing discussions within the UDF for the assembly elections have taken a sharp turn with the Congress reportedly telling ally, P J Joseph-led Kerala Congress (KC), to fall in line with broader alliance understanding or face the consequences.
The Congress is understood to have arrived at the position on the basis of data from the three rounds of surveys conducted across all 140 assembly constituencies.
Bilateral talks between the Congress and IUML have also hit a wall after the latter demanded additional seats from the grand old party in return for it sacrificing its sitting seat for the CMP.
“Fielding of weaker candidates by KC in Irinjalakuda and Kothamangalam is proving a setback for victory prospects,” a senior Congress leader said, adding, “We also want to reclaim the Idukki constituency, which the KC failed to win.”
The Congress leadership believes that in a do-or-die situation it has little option but to make its allies realise the ground reality. However, the KC leadership has reportedly informed the ally that it will not relinquish the Idukki seat. “The Congress has three seats in Idukki district, we have two. When other parties are allowed to contest the same number of seats as in 2021, why should we make a sacrifice?” asked a KC leader.
It also conveyed to the Congress that it will field winnable candidates in Irinjalakuda and Kothamangalam and will not surrender the seats. The Congress, in turn, has asked KC to swap the Ettumanoor seat with Poonjar.
Sources in Congress said the underlying factor behind the move is KC’s decision to field candidates against it in the recently-held Thiruvananthapuram corporation election. KC is reportedly unhappy with what it sees as an attempt by the Congress to reduce its tally from 10 seats to eight.
Meanwhile, the final round of discussions between the Congress and IUML on seat sharing will be held on Thursday. “The CMP has sought the Thiruvananthapuram Central and Kunnamangalam seats. Though Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan was in favour of handing over the Thiruvananthapuram Central seat to the CMP, several Congress leaders were against it,” a Congress leader said.
During bilateral talks, the League agreed to give the Thiruvambady seat to CMP but demanded that the Congress hand over the Tavanur seat to the IUML.
“If we do that, our seat share in Malappuram will decrease and it will affect the party’s prospects,” a Congress leader said.
In the discussions, the Forward Bloc demanded the Kollam seat. The party also asked Congress to allot it one seat out of the four it has indicated - Aruvikkara, Kayamkulam, Vypeen and Malampuzha.
The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) has also demanded a swap of its Attingal and Mattannur constituencies with Congress’ Varkala or Vamanapuram and Ambalappuzha, Chadayamangalam or Punalur, respectively, besides seeking to contest from Chavara, Eravipuram and Kunnathur.