Seat sharing first hurdle for rival fronts in Kerala

 

                                                                                 V.S.Achudanandan

Thiruvananthapuram, March 2 : With Kerala's ruling and opposition coalitions gearing up for the April 13 elections, state leaders Wednesday admitted that seat sharing issues needed to be sorted out first.

"Sacrifices will have to be made by all concerned because there are going to be more parties but the number of seats remains the same. We are quite certain that we will be able to solve the seat sharing process quickly and will hit the campaign trail," leader of opposition Oomen Chandy said.

The opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) is led by Congress with 24 members in the 140-seat house.

Other constituents are the Kerala Congress (Mani) with 11 seats, Indian Union Muslim League with 7, Socialist Janata Democratic (Virendra Kumar) with 3, and Kerala Congress-B, JSS and Indian National League with one seat each.

UDF is also supported by one independent.

                                                    Ooman Chanday

                                                      
The ruling Left Democratic Front's (LDF) major constituent is the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) with 61 seats, followed by the Communist Party of India (17), Revolutionary Socialist Party (3), the Nationalist Congress Party (2), Janata Dal-Secular (2), Kerala Congress (Thomas) (1) and Congress-S (1).

The LDF also includes three Left-supported independents.

One seat in the assembly is vacant.

For the CPI-M, another issue to decide is whether Chief Minister V.S. Achuthandan, 87, will lead the front in this election.

The first support for Achuthanandan came Wednesday when RSP chief V.P. Ramakrishna Pillai said the chief minister's image will help the LDF.

"Finally, the decision on who is to lead the LDF will be decided by the CPI-M. In all, we want seven seats this time to contest," said Pillai.

--IANS

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