Assembly elections: little progress in seat sharing talks

Thiruvananthapuram: Differences persisted over seat sharing for Kerala Assembly elections in the United Democratic Front even after third round of discussions on Monday.

With minor constituents of the Front demanding more seats, no agreement is sight. However, a seat for Communist Marxist Party has been decided upon. C. P. John will contest from this seat (Kunnamkulam).

Kerala Congress (Mani) is demanding 18 seats against 15 contested by it in the last elections.  There has been agreement on allocating seven seats for Janata Dal (United), but the constituencies are yet to be agreed upon. There will be fresh round of discussions between Congress and JD (U) tomorrow morning. There will be discussions among Kerala Congress, Muslim League and Congress in the afternoon.

No decision could be arrived at on demand for Ankamali seat by Kerala Congress (Jacob).

Seat sharing talks could not yet be concluded in the Left Democratic Front also. Decision making for finalising candidates list is progressing in the CPI (M) with the State Secretariat and the State Committee meeting. The contentious issue of both Opposition Leader V. S. Achuthanandan and former State secretary Pinarai Vijayan contesting the elections had been more or less decided upon with the polit bureau persuading the State Secretariat and State Committee to accept its proposal.

The district committees of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Alappuzha are in the process of reviewing their list of candidates as wanted by the State committee. The Kannur district committee has revised its list. Announcement of final list is expected towards the end of this month.