CPI-M, JD(S) slug it out over Kozhikode

Kozhikode: The stand-off between the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Communist Party of India -Marxist, heading the ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala, continues with the former on Tuesday reiterating its firm decision to claim the Kozhikode Lok Sabha seat in the state.

''There is no question of swapping the seat with Wayanad'' as suggested by the CPI -M, JD(S) state unit President MP Veerendra Kumar, the sitting MP from the constituency, said in Kozhikode after a party meet.

Top office bearers and District Committee presidents of the party had unanimously decided to oppose the demand of the CPI-M, which reportedly considered the seat favourable to it in the wake of delimitation of the constituency, he said.

''It is not justifiable to deny the party its seat'' merely due to delimitation as the exercise had taken place throughout the country and not in a particular constituency," he said.

Veerendra Kumar also said the JD(S) has been a part of the LDF for a long time and would remain with the Left and democratic forces in the emerging political scenario following the formation of a Third Front, to give an alternative to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and BJP-headed National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the country, he said.

He said the issue would be taken up again in a bilateral meeting with the CPI-M and the LDF Coordination Committee scheduled to be held at Thiruvanthapuram on March 12.

Refusing to comment on the reported threat of the party to withdraw its minister from the CPI-M-led government in the state, he said future course of action would be decided after the March 12 meet.

Seat-sharing exercise of the LDF lingered on with the JD(S) taking a firm stand on Kozhikode seat against the wishes of the CPI-M and Communist Party of India (CPI) favouring an independent candidate backed by it for Ponnani Lok Sabha instead of a mutually acceptable candidate.

Meanwhile, Indian Union Muslim League leader and former state minister ET Mohammed Basheer, fielded by the Opposition United Democratic Front in Ponnani, had already launched his election campaign in the constituency.