Rebels to be fielded in key seats

By Girish Menon

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 8. The senior Congress leader, Mr. K. Karunakaran, has opened the first phase of his strategy to implement his threat by deciding to field rebels in some of the crucial constituencies.

Even though there are reports indicating that the Congress high command was willing to consider a formula to appease the recalcitrant leader, Mr. Karunakaran has decided not to wait for the party leadership's intervention to solve the row. The decision to field rebel candidates in key constituencies is being viewed as part of his strategy to put pressure on it and reopen the candidates selection process.

As part of this strategy, the Karunakaran faction announced that Ms. Maliyath Saraladevi, who lost out in the race for a ticket from Aranmula seat, would contest as a rebel in the constituency. The official candidate, Mr. Sivadasan Nair, belongs to the Antony faction. The Aranmula seat was one of the seven seats which were a matter of dispute between the two main factions. Mr. Karunakaran did not hide his ire at his nominee, that too a woman, being denied the ticket.

Ms. Saraladevi is a member of the KPCC executive and a strong Karunakaran supporter. The Karunakaran faction is likely to put up rebels in Kayamkulam and Kottayam, which had been disputed at the Central Election Committee meeting. Mr. Karunakaran had taken strong exception at the rather unilateral manner in which the candidates to these seats were announced.

In the meantime, his supporters held demonstrations in Thiruvananthapuram and a few other district headquarters protesting against the raw deal given to the Karunakaran faction. In Thiruvananthapuram, Karunakaran supporters burnt the AICC general secretary, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, in effigy.

The decision to field rebel candidates is a follow-up of Mr. Karunakaran's resignation as permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee. Mr. Karunakaran hopes to put pressure on the Congress high command and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. A.K. Antony, by fielding rebels and forcing the high command to either reopen the candidate selection process or make this a negotiating point to wrest concessions.

The contours of a conciliation formula emerged in the context of Mr. Karunakaran's decision to quit his CWC post and the imperatives of the party high command to ensure that the UDF wins in Kerala, which is one of the few States where the Congress is comfortably placed in the Assembly elections.

The AICC general secretary, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad's announcement that the KPCC president's post would be given to the Karunakaran group is being read in political circles here as an attempt to mollify Mr. Karunakaran.

The decision to field rebels would complicate matters further for the Congress and the UDF, which had been in a buoyant mood in the run-up to the elections. The Karunakaran faction is taking care to ensure that its fight did not revolve around the denial of ticket to Ms. Padmaja, but rather on the key issue of many of the factional leaders being denied tickets.

A factional meeting on Saturday authorised the veteran to take whatever decision he thought fit to wrest what the faction perceives is its due rights. The decision to quit the CWC post and induct rebel menace in the party's electoral affairs brings out the uneasy relationship that Mr. Karunakaran has been sharing with the party high command. The controversy over the ticket distribution has also ripped off the facade of unity the two senior leaders had been projecting for the last few years.

Mr. Karunakaran has been asserting that the claims of his supporters had been overlooked at various stages. His attempts to force the reconstitution of the KPCC and the Youth Congress were frustrated by the party high command, which refused to give in to his demand to make his son, Mr. K. Muraleedharan, the KPCC president. It is a different matter that Mr. Karunakaran does not share the party high command's perception on several policy matters, including formation of a coalition Government at the Centre. Mr. Karunakaran happened to be one of the few leaders who registered their opposition to the move at the recently concluded Bangalore session of the AICC, though he was prepared to accept it only as a last resort.

These divergent perceptions give a sharp edge to the belligerency displayed by Mr. Karunakaran, who is also banking on the high command's imperatives of winning Kerala, the only State in which the party has an upper hand as the leader of the coalition. The conciliation formula doing its round in political circles in the State is to make Mr. Muraleedharan the PCC president before the elections. The reaction of Mr. Karunakaran is not yet known. Mr. Antony has so far kept his counsel on the current controversy. As far as he is concerned, the ball was in the court of the Congress high command. He has persistently kept off an open confrontation with Mr. Karunakaran, at times even going all out to meet him personally if only to remove any misunderstanding that the veteran was being ignored. Mr. Antony has not opened his mind on the conciliation formula.

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