Keen to push ahead with its demand for a second Lok Sabha seat in Central Travancore, the revamped high-power committee of the Kerala Congress (M) is slated to meet in Kottayam on September 24.
Party sources said the 23-member committee would discuss the strategy to affirm the party’s hold across the region for demanding the additional seat. Other key issues that will come up for discussion include the recent developments in the sexual harassment case filed by the Solar scam accused and the Left Democratic Front’s setback in the Puthuppally byelection.
While Kottayam remains to be its sitting seat, the KC(M) is fancying its chances for an additional seat in consideration of its influence among the settler farmers and the Christian electorate.
“While an in-principal decision has been made to stake the claim for an additional seat, we are yet to select between Idukki and Pathanamthitta,” said a party leader.
In Idukki, the party holds one out of the five seats with the LDF, while in Pathanamthitta, it holds three out of the total seven assembly segments. The recent confrontations between the settler farmers and the LDF government over a range of issues, a resurgent UDF that showed its might in Puthuppally and the competing interests of parties within the LDF are the key factors that stand in its way.
Meanwhile, the High Power Committee will also discuss the manner in which it will formally register its protest against having K.B. Ganesh Kumar, MLA, within the LDF. The move comes in the wake of a media disclosure by Feni Balakrishnan, a lawyer who had earlier represented the complainant, that the names of former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and KC (M) chairman Jose K. Mani were included in the list of accused in the sexual abuse case at the behest of Mr. Kumar.
“Having entrapped our chairman in a sexual harassment case, we definitely do not want Mr. Kumar to be included in the LDF cabinet in case of a reshuffle,” said another leader.
A quick review of the reasons that caused a below-par performance by the LDF in the recent byelection at Puthupally, too will be held.
This is for the first time that the newly appointed high-power committee of the KC(M) is holding a meeting after an organisational revamp in October 2022.
