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CPI threatens pullout after CPM short shrift

While CPI walked out of the LDF meet protesting CPI(M)’s one-upmanship, JD(S) hoped its seat won’t be taken over. RSP was denied any seat.

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Kerala’s ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) failed to resolve its constituents’ disputes in seat sharing on Thursday. While CPI walked out of the LDF meet protesting CPI(M)’s one-upmanship, JD(S) hoped its seat won’t be taken over. RSP was denied any seat.

CPI(M), which contests 14 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, announced 13 candidates on Thursday. Though the party had picked candidate for Kozhikode, which returned JD(S) president MP Veerendra Kumar in 2004, it delayed the declaration to save Deve Gowda’s party an embarrassment. JD(S), which refuses to trade Kozhikode for Wayanad, threatens to pull out.

The real stalemate is Ponnani, where CPI candidates have been consistently losing to Muslim League. Confident of newfound support from Muslim quarters, CPI(M) wants an independent candidate who can ensure the help of Abdul Naser Madani’s PDP. But CPI would have none of it. It went ahead and announced its own independent candidate against a college principal backed by PDP and CPI(M) local leadership. It even threatened to contest all 20 seats alone.

“Ponnani is not negotiable. We may even contest alone,” party secretary Veliyam Bhargavan told reporters.

The party is irked by CPI(M)’s convenient marriage to PDP, which threatened to field candidates in all three seats allotted to CPI if it did not forgo Ponnani.  CPI(M) needs PDP support to cut inroads into the Muslim vote-bank.

Sensing danger, Muslim League, a staunch ally of the Congress, has begun its own game. “The only time CPI got any say in Kerala politics is when it was with Congress and Muslim League. Their present predicament is pathetic,” general secretary PK Kunjalikutty said. In Delhi, KPCC chief Ramesh Chennithala said if a Third Front was formed at the national level on the lines of the LDF, it would be tragic.
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