Rebels trouble LDF, UDF

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 4 (UNI) With barely a few weeks for the Assembly polls, rebels have become a nightmare for both the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) with both finding it hard to set their houses in order.

Though it is not new for the Congress and the UDF, it was unheard of in a cadre-based party like the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the LDF they represent. But now rebels in the camp have announced their candidature against the official ones.

Trouble within the LDF surfaced when the KC (J) announced they would field 14 candidates, apart from the six they had been allotted. A senior party leader said though they had a strong base in Kottayam district, they were given just one seat and in other strong areas in north Kerala, they were left out.

The rebels will make it tough for the official candidates in at least in Kottayam. Meanwhile KC (J) leader K C Joseph, the lone legislator of the party, said there will be no rebel candidates.

In another setback to the LDF, Former Forest Minister and sitting Janata Dal (S) MLA A Neelalohithadasan Nadar decided to contest from Kovalam as an Independent after resigning as a legislator.

Mr Nadar, who was sentenced last year in two sexual harassment cases, was denied a seat after the CPI (M) raised strong objections.

The LDF which always had a smooth sailing during seat sharing was faced with unprecedented troubles from day one of discussions.

The Front partners were quite reluctant to accept the diktats of the CPI(M), which was garnering a major share of the seats.

When the final list of candidates were announced last week, the CPI(M) was again the winner with 91 seats, including independents, in their kitty and the other partners getting 49 seats to share among themselves.

The CPI(M) will contest 84 seats on its own, eight more than last time. While it fielded four Independents in the last poll, seven candidates are in the fray this time.

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