Despite purported differences over K-Rail, university appointments and relationship with Raj Bhavan, the CPI(M) and the CPI agreed to share the two Rajya Sabha seats "certain" for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the biennial elections to the Upper House of Parliament scheduled on March 31.
LDF convener A. Vijayaraghavan, who chaired a meeting of the ruling alliance here on Tuesday, told reporters that the coalition had arrived at a broad agreement to accord the seats to the CPI(M) and the CPI. The conclave decided that the CPI(M) and the CPI should put up their candidates for the Rajya Sabha election given the "national situation". It was not a decision based on the numbers in the Assembly alone., he added
The Janata Dal (Secular), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) had earlier staked their claim to one of the two Rajya Sabha seats. However, the CPI(M) and the CPI reportedly cited the ascent of the BJP in the recent Assembly elections in some States, the decimation of the Congress and the Grand Old Party's "failure" to counter the Sangh Parivar to press the need for an enhanced presence of Communist parties in the Rajya Sabha.
The parties also purportedly posited they were better positioned to persuade non-BJP-ruled States to work together on shared policy and political ideals. They included issues linked to "increasingly fraught" Centre-State relations, centralisation of authority, lack of fiscal federalism and "infringements" on the jurisdictional powers of States.
