As elections are nearing in Kerala, issues related to seat sharing have taken momentum in Congress led UDF in Kerala. Reports say that this time around the Congress has decided to be stingy on seat allotment and that it won’t encourage pressure for more seats from its constituents.
Congress reportedly informed this decision to it’s constituents as former Finance Minister KM Mani sought more seats to solve the issues inside his part KC (M). There were differences between Mani’s faction and water resources minister PJ Joseph’s faction over seat sharing as the latter sought more tickets for leaders of his faction.
The Times of India reports that Congress has now decided not to accept the KC (M) demand. Instead, the party is likely to take over the Poonjar seat which was represented by expelled rebel KC M) leader P C George.
KC (M) had won 9 out of 15 seats it contested in last elections.
The JD(U) headed by M P Veerendra Kumar had also expressed its wish for more seats this time. But the report says that since JD(U) has been given one Rajya Sabha seat and one of the party nominee has been accommodated in state information commission, they will not be allotted more seats.
RSP also poses a problem for the UDF as last time they were allotted four seats and now they are demanding 8 seats.
The ToI further reports that the Congress has also decided to take back one seat from the Kerala Congress (Jacob) which contested in three seats last time and won only one. However, KC(J) wants four seats now.