Consensus eludes ruling front

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JUNE 2. Bilateral discussions between LDF constituents here today failed to throw up any decision on the question of sharing the two Rajya Sabha seats up for grabs by the Front in the June 23 election.

With all the four claimants to the seats remaining unrelenting in their demands, the Front leadership is faced with protracted bargaining over the coming one week to break the deadlock. Filing of nominations for the Rajya Sabha polls would commence on June 5.

The last date for filing papers is June 12 and, going by current indications, the LDF is likely to finalise its nominees only towards the eleventh hour.

Today's bilateral exercises began in the morning with discussions between the CPI(M) and the CPI.

The former was represented at the meeting by the LDF convener, Mr. V. S. Achuthanandan, and the CPI(M) State secretary, Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan, and the latter by Mr. P. K. Vasudevan Nair and Mr. Veliyam Bhargavan.

The CPI leaders told their CPI(M) counterparts that there is no question of their giving up their claim on the second seat. They also told the CPI(M) leaders that the appropriate thing to do would be to honour the commitment given to the RSP at the time of the last Lok Sabha polls that the first arising vacancy to the Rajya Sabha would be allotted to it.

The CPI(M) leaders expressed their inability to part with both seats. That simply foreclosed the possibility of an immediate understanding on the issue.

The RSP State secretary, Prof. T. J. Chandrachoodan, and the party State secretariat member, Mr. Sankaran Nair, who represented his party at the bilateral discussion, did not mince words when he met the CPI(M) leaders. Besides reminding them about the promise given to his party, he also pointed out that the RSP had no representative in Parliament.

When his turn came, the NCP State president, Mr. Ramachandran Kadannappally, pointed out that his party had every claim to a berth in the Rajya Sabha as it had been forced to sacrifice the Kannur and Vadakara Lok Sabha seats.

The understanding then was that Janata Dal's Mr. Arangil Sreedharan would step down on completion of three years. However, the LDF decided to go in for Assembly polls in 1991 and lost. Had Mr. Sreedharan resigned then, the seat would have gone to the UDF.

This enabled Mr. Sreedharan to remain a Rajya Sabha member for the full term. According to NCP leaders, other LDF constituents too are sympathetic towards them.

However, they conceded that everything would depend on how far the other constituents are willing to accommodate each the other.

Although the rest of the coalition would like the CPI(M) to give up both seats, everybody knows that it is an inconceivable proposition. The CPI(M) leaders insist that they cannot do without at least one seat. The party does not wish to see its strength in the Rajya Sabha go down in what promises to be an election year in the State.

Going by the current trend of discussions, no settlement to the vexed question would be possible without some real give and take on all sides. And, whichever way it goes, the CPI(M) may once again emerge as the villain of the piece, at least in the eyes of the coalition partners.

There was no indication of further discussions between the LDF constituents till tomorrow. However, beginning Monday, the CPI(M) leaders would be busy with their State Secretariat and State Committee meetings to discuss the Muslim League question.

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