The Samajwadi Party?s effort to get a berth in the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and thus to enter the Kerala Cabinet may be delayed further as state comrades are yet to give a green signal to their central leadership. The SP leaders, who met CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat the other day on the issue, was also told that the decision is a ??sole prerogative?? of the state unit of the party and the LDF.
??Such things (alliances at states) are decided at the state level. The party unit in Kerala will take an appropriate decision,?? senior CPI(M) leader S Ramachandran Pillai told FE. This is in contradiction to SP leader Amar Singh?s claim that the SP will join the LDF ministry soon. He had announced this after the meeting he and his chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had with Karat on Tuesday.
SP was hoping to get the entry after the proposed merger with a JD(S) splinter group in the state, led by Lok Sabha member MP Veerendrakumar. The JD(S) has at present five MLAs in the assembly and a minister in the VS Achuthanandan Cabinet.
When asked about the situation, LDF convenor Vaikkam Viswan told FE that the front is yet to discuss the issue. ??We came to know of the merger move only through media reports. We are yet to discuss it in the LDF,?? he said. Viswan, also a central committee member of the CPI(M), added that the state party unit has not discussed the issue so far.
However, highly placed sources in the LDF informed that even if the state CPI(M) adopts a favourable stand towards SP after a compulsion from the central unit, parties like CPI and RSP might oppose the ??back-door entry?? of the Uttar Pradesh party. Sources added that a group within the JD(S) is also opposing it. SP?s effort to ally with Abdul Nasar Madani’s PDP might also come on their way to the LDF. The LDF’s proclaimed policy is against enrolling any ??communal forces?? into its fold.
??First let them decide within themselves what to do. Then we and the LDF will take a decision,?? a senior CPI(M) leader said. The CPI and the RSP, with the help of the CPI(M) central unit, had blocked the entry of former state chief minister K Karunakaran?s plan to join LDF. Political observers say that the SP issue could go on the same way.