Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress led UDF has finalised seat sharing for Lok Sabha elections in Kerala. Speaking to the media at Thiruvananthapuram, Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, V.D. Satheesan said that Congress will contest on 16 seats while IUML will contest on two seats while RSP and KCJ will contest on one seat each. Satheesan said.
It is learnt that the Indian Union Muslim League's demand for an additional seat was rejected by Congress leadership. The IUML will get a Rajya Sabha berth in July for the third LS seat, sources said.
"The Muslim League is eligible for a third seat in the Lok Sabha elections. But the practical difficulty of providing a third seat under the present circumstances was brought to the notice of the League leadership. A Rajya Sabha seat which will be vacated in July will be given to the League, " said VD Satheeshan.
The opposition leader also stated that an agreement has been reached with the league on the issue.
The Muslim League is contesting the Lok Sabha elections in Malappuram and Ponnani seats with the IUML announcing their candidates for their two seats. ET Mohammed Basheer will contest from Malappuram and Abdu Samad Samadani will contest from Ponnani. Other UDF constituents RSP and KCJ also announced their candidates from their allocated seats.
NK Premachandran will contest from Kollam for RSP and Fransis George will contest from Kottayam for Kerala Congress. Congress is yet to finalise their candidates for 16 seats including Wayanad. The ruling LDF already declared their candidates for all the 20 seats.
The leader of Opposition VD Satheesan said, "In the absence of election notification, there is no need to quickly announce candidates and start campaigning”.
“The KPCC President will prepare a report on the Congress candidates and submit it to the High Command. The Congress Screening Committee will select the candidates. This is a regular process of party elections. Matters regarding the candidates should not be discussed with the media," he added.
KPCC president K. Sudhakaran said UDF will raise the issue of “violent politics of CPM” as the main issue in this election. "The High court order enhancing punishment in TP Chandrasekharan murder case convicts once again proved that the CPM is the killer party,” Sudhakaran alleged.
“Those including the Chief Minister cannot shirk their responsibility. The conspirators are still at large. To put them all behind bars Congress will provide all assistance to K.K. Rama, widow of TP Chandrasekharan .This election will be Pinarayi Vijayan's Waterloo," Sudhakaran added.
- Read more: Kerala: Congress Refuses to Give 3rd LS Seat to IUML; Seat Sharing Talks Inconclusive
- UDF Ally RSP Announces N K Premachandran as Lok Sabha Candidate from Kollam
