Curiosity is high, UDF seat settlement is final, Congress to contest 16 out of 20 seats
New Delhi : The opposition UDF camp has finalized the seat deal in Kerala. Incidentally, in this southern state, the eyes of the whole country are on Rahul Gandhi’s constituencies in Wayanad constituency. Out of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the major partner Congress will field candidates in 16. Congress announced this in a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. Congress claims that the party will soon announce the names of candidates for these 16 seats. CPI, an ally of the ruling Left alliance in Kerala, has already announced its candidate for this seat. CPI General Secretary D Raja’s wife Annie Raja will contest from Wayanad constituency. The Congress party argues that though the Left party is part of the ‘INDIA’ coalition at the national level, everyone knows that the situation in Kerala is different. Though the Kerala Congress has requested the high command that Rahul should contest from Wayanad again.
According to Congress sources, the opposition leader and state president will soon visit Delhi to finalize the list of candidates for 16 constituencies. The names of the candidates will be announced from Delhi. The biggest issue is whether will Rahul Gandhi be interested to contest from Wayanad again.But since the CPI has announced Annie Raja’s name from this seat, the uproar has started. Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said in Delhi that the Congress and the Left are allies of each other in various states. But the fight between the two camps in Kerala has happened before and will be no exception in the future. UDF Chairman and Leader of the Opposition VD Satisan announced the equation of seat share in Kerala. Pradesh Congress President K Sudhakaran was also present at the press conference. Satheesan said that in the internal discussions of the UDF alliance, it has been decided that the Congress will contest in 16 of the 20 seats in Kerala. Like last time, one alliance Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) will field candidates in two seats. They will contest in Malappuram and Ponnai. RSP will contest from Kollam seat. Kerala Congress (J) will field candidates in Kottayam. Incidentally, this time the IUML claimed three seats. Said that they will not budge from this demand of one more seat than last time. Satisan said that it has been possible to convince the IUML leadership. Judging by the current situation, they have agreed to contest in two seats this time too. We accept that the IUML’s demand for an additional seat is justified. It has been decided that the next Rajya Sabha seat that falls vacant from Kerala will go to IUML
