3 min readThiruvananthapuramApr 29, 2010 01:20 AM IST
First published on: Apr 29, 2010 at 01:20 AM IST
Kerala Congress Joseph,a regional Christian party in the Left Democratic Front,is all set to snap its 20-year alliance with the CPM-led coalition. A formal decision on quitting the Left camp and merging with the Kerala Congress Mani,an ally of the Congress-led United Democratic Front UDF,would be announced after the partys state committee meeting on Friday.
The decision of the KCJ,which has four MLAs and a minister in the state Cabinet,would not pose even a distant threat to the government as CPM alone has 61 members in the 140-strong Assembly. Of the four KCJ legislators,V Surendran Pillai has already made clear his intention to stay with the LDF,making a spilt essential for the party,which is represented in the Cabinet by its chairman P J Joseph,the state Works Minister.
But the situation is different in the UDF,which has of late become an asylum for disgruntled parties and persons from the LDF. The Congress is worried that it would have to make space for the KC J.
Last year,the UDF accommodated the JDS after the latter broke up with the LDF over seat sharing in the LS elections. In the meantime, Kerala Congress Secular,which had the Left support,too entered the UDF.
After the delimitation,four Assembly segments had vanished from Central Kerala,which is the political field of the Kerala Congress groups. This would further put pressure on the UDF when it would sit for the seat-sharing exercise for next years Assembly election.
If the KCJ-KCM merger becomes a reality,the unified Kerala Congress would emerge further stronger within the UDF,a dream of the Christian Bishops in Kerala. The broader Christian party would pull down the Indian Union Muslim League from the slot of the second leading partner of the Congress in Kerala. The Congress is not party to the developments within the KCM and the KCJ. The merger of a Left element is an internal matter of the KCM, said UDF convener and Congress leader P P Thankachan.
The Catholic Church has been exerting pressure on KCJ to severe its ties with the Left as the Church-CPM relation had soured over various issues,since the LDF came to power in 2006.
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