The major partners of the Opposition United Democratic Front — the Indian Union Muslim League and Kerala Congress (Mani) — have formed an axis to wrest more Cabinet berths in case the coalition comes to power.
This means that Congress junior allies, who ended up with fewer seats in the elections, may not get ministerial berths either. The pressure for Cabinet posts from within the Congress as well as the IUML and KC(M) is such that there will be fewer slots left to share with the junior allies.
The IUML which contested in 24 seats and the KC(M) which had candidates in 15 seats are upbeat about the outcome.
Top leaders of the two parties, Mr P.K. Kunhalikutty, and Mr K.M. Mani, met at a hotel in Kochi the other day to take stock of the situation and decided to work together.
Both might press for more berths, if the Congress, which contested in 82 seats, is not able to return adequate numbers to retain its clout as the alliance leader.
However, the Opposition leader, Mr Oommen Chandy, told this newspaper it was too early to predict the nitty-gritty of the Cabinet formation.
The hopes of the junior allies rest on the possibility of the UDF returning with a wafer thin majority in the 140-member House, lending their ones and twos critical value in maintaining the majority in the House.
The UDF is already sagging under the weight of the fresh entrant, the Socialist Janata Democratic, and the “bloated” Kerala Congress (Mani), the JSS, the CMP, the Kerala Congress (Jacob), the Kerala Congress (B) and an RSP faction.
“We’ve a problem of plenty, which arguably was good for us electorally,” said a top UDF leader. “But when it comes to sharing the spoils of power, the front will grapple with a crisis of sorts”.