After a washout, Rajya Sabha seats the next headache for Kerala CM Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram, June 5 (IANS) With the Lok Sabha results proving to be a setback for Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, winning just one seat, the next headache for him is looming ahead as two seats for the Rajya Sabha have to be distributed between the ruling Left Democratic Front ( LDF).

With elections scheduled for June 25 and the nominations coming up, a serious problem has arisen as of the three seats, two will be won by the LDF and one by the Congress led UDF.

This will be a big bother for Vijayan as one seat will be taken by the CPI-M and the other by the CPI, leaving RS member and chairman of the Kerala Congress (Mani), Jose K. Mani in a tight spot.

The retiring members are the state party chiefs of the two Left allies -- Binoy Viswam who heads the CPI in Kerala, Jose Mani and CPI(M) veteran Elamaram Kareem.

KC-M is the third biggest ally in the LDF. It joined the Left in 2020, after a split in the party. The group led by Mani joined the LDF.

Viswam on Wednesday made it clear that they will stake their claim for their seat and there is no way they are going to go back on it.

Mani got a shock when his candidate lost the Kottayam Lok Sabha seat to their former party colleague. That has left his party with no one in parliament, something which has never happened in the past.

Mani has been in Parliament since 2009. In the 2021 Assembly polls, while being a member of the Rajya Sabha, he suffered his worst political setback when he lost by a huge margin in his father’s constituency Pala in Kottayam.

Now with Mani and his party already staking their claim to the Rajya Sabha seat and the CPI making it clear that it will not move out, Vijayan and the CPI-M have to find a way to placate Mani. It remains to be seen if the CPI-M will sacrifice its seat, like the Congress party did by giving the one seat to the Indian Union Muslim League.

The ruling LDF is scheduled to meet to discuss this later this week.