The Congress-led United Democratic Front on Friday thrashed out a seat sharing formula that is more-or-less satisfactory to all its allies.
Under the new formula, the Communist Marxist Party (CMP), led by former minister M.V. Raghavan, will contest from three Assembly seats — Nenmara, Kunnamkulam and Dharmadam.
While Mr Raghavan would contest from Nenmara, his lieutenants, C.P. John and Choorayi Chandran, would contest from Kunnamkulam and Dharmadam constituencies respectively.
The CMP had earlier decided not to accept the three seats allotted to them for the April 13 Assembly elections, holding that they were unilaterally decided by the Congress.
Another angry ally, the Socialist Janata (Democratic) of M.P. Veerendra Kumar will field candidates in six constituencies — Vatakara, Nemom, Mattannur, Kuthuparamba, Kalpetta and Alathur.
The Congress party will field its own candidate in the Nattika constituency, which is the seat that was earlier allotted to the CMP and which was later turned down.
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Chandy rues VS’ hate campaign
age correspondent
kochi
March 25: Kerala’s Opposition leader Oommen Chandy lashed out at Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Friday and accused him of indulging in a hate campaign and politics of vengeance.
Mr Chandy also said that the Chief Minister’s tone lacked ‘decency’ citing the usage of oruthi (one woman) when he referred to Sindhu Joy, who quit the CPI(M) to join the Congress, and Lathika Subhash, the UDF candidate pitted against Mr Achuthanandan in Malampuzha.
“Why should he go around saying that UDF leaders will soon be behind bars?” asked Mr Chandy. “Let the law take its course. Those guilty should be punished and we are not against it.”
Mr Chandy pointed out that the Chief Minister, who was kept on a tight leash by the party, had not fulfilled his promises of booking the guilty in many cases in the last five years.
He had not kept his word on naming the ‘VIP’ who paid a visit to sex racket victim Shari before she died, he said.
“The Chief Minister also went back on his word to appoint an official I proposed to probe the allegations against his son,” said Mr Chandy, adding, “Instead, he forwarded the complaint to the Lok Ayukta which is something that even we could have done.”