Kerala NCP-SP in a flux even as leaders deny rumours of merger with Congress

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 15 (IANS) The Kerala unit of the NCP-SP is in a state of flux over rumours about party veteran Sharad Pawar merging his party with the Congress. This is despite the fact that senior NCP-SP leaders have denied any merger plans.

The Kerala NCP is led by former Congress Lok Sabha member PC Chacko who quit the Congress party to join his mentor Sharad Pawar, a few years ago. It has two legislators, one of whom is a state minister.

The Kerala unit is worried that if Sharad Pawar merges his faction of the NCP with the grand old party then the party will automatically become an ally of the Congress-led Opposition in Kerala.

At present the Kerala NCP is an ally of the ruling CPI-M led Left and its legislator AK Saseendran who is state Minister for Forests and his colleague K Thomas, are Treasury Bench legislators.

Also, if the Kerala NCP rebels against the rumoured merger and joins hands with the Ajit Pawar faction, then there will be even more trouble as the junior Pawar is with the BJP-led NDA faction in Maharashtra at present. The Kerala NCP cannot join hands with the Ajit Pawar faction.

However, sources say that Chacko and his party men have dismissed any media reports that Pawar will merge his party with the Congress.

Incidentally, in the recent past, another ally of the Left in Kerala, the JD-S suffered a jolt when its National President and former Prime Minister, HD Deve Gowda, decided to become an ally of the BJP.

With the Gowda faction announcing that the arrangement is only in Karnataka, things in the Kerala unit of the JD-S continue to be hazy.