Day later,first cracks in Third Front

The Lefts plan of building a non-BJP,non-Congress national platform on Monday suffered a jolt in Kerala,where the JDS quit the CPIM-led Cabinet....

The Lefts plan of building a non-BJP,non-Congress national platform on Monday suffered a jolt in Kerala,where the JDS quit the CPIM-led Cabinet in protest against the denial of its sitting seat Kozhikode for the upcoming elections. Its lone member in the Cabinet,Transport Minister Mathew T Thomas,submitted his resignation to Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan on Monday evening.

The resignation has landed the Left Democratic Front in a crisis on the eve of the elections. The JDS,the third largest ally in the LDF,has five MLAs. Its state president M P Veerendrakumar,an MP,said the party would decide on the future course of actions,including whether to continue in the LDF,in the party state executive committee meeting slated for Wednesday.

The frayed relation between the JDS and CPIM would thrust a wedge between the two parties at the national level against the backdrop of their attempts to create a non-BJP,non-Congress alternative. In Kerala,the JDS has a cadre strong enough to upset the prospects of CPIM candidates in five constituencies. Besides,a sympathy wave in favour of Thomas,who has an impeccable track record,would also influence the decision of non-political voters.

There was neither political nor moral justification for the CPIM decision to take away the seat. It was CPIM general secretary Prakash Karat who told the gathering in Tumkur that the party has to keep the Left parties together in states,where his party was heading the coalition. Now the same party has worked against the interest of the third front, Veerendrakumar said.

The CPIM wanted to take away Kozhikode on the alibi that after the delimitation,the seat had become its stronghold. Opposing the contention,Veerendrakumar said,The JDS has been contesting the seat since 1980. If delimitation was the reason to deny the sitting seat,all 20 seats in Kerala should have been subjected to a review and allotted to various parties,after analysing the might of each constituent.

Kozhikode had emerged to be a roadblock in the seat-sharing discussions between the CPIM and JDS in Kerala for quite some time. The Left partys offer of Wayanad was earlier declined by the JDS.

As a last-ditch attempt to wriggle out of the crisis,Achuthanandan would buy time on forwarding the ministers resignation to Governor R S Gavai. Chief Minister would seek the opinion of the liaison committee of the Left Democratic Front before moving the resignation letter to the Governor, said his political secretary K N Balagopal.