Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 19 : Contrary to speculation, media baron and Janata Dal-U supremo M.P. Veerendra Kumar who bid goodbye to the Congress-led UDF and is set to join the ruling CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front, will not stake claim to the Rajya Sabha seat that he resigned in December, said a top party leader.
Speaking to IANS, the top leader who did not wish to be identified, said "they were quite aware of the political morality that one should practice".
"We will not stake a claim and we do not want the Rajya Sabha seat that our chief won last year with the support of the UDF. Now that we have left the UDF, we will not ask for that seat from the LDF," said the party leader.
Last week the JD-U decided to end the relation with the UDF, and took the decision to return to the Left Democratic Front (LDF).
"Our first task is to float a new party, which would be led by Sharad Yadav, and once that happens, we will form the Kerala unit," added the leader.
Kumar and his party which was part of the LDF till 2009, shifted base after he was denied the sitting Lok Sabha seat of his in Kozhikode and joined the UDF.
But after he lost the 2014 Lok Sabha polls by a margin of over one lakh votes, he has been unhappy with the UDF. However, they kept him happy by giving a Rajya Sabha seat in 2017.
Kumar suffered a jolt when Bihar Chief Minister and the JD-U president Nitish Kumar decided to support the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), forcing him to bid goodbye to the JD-U along with Sharad Yadav and quit his Rajya Sabha seat.
While the CPI-M has cleared the entry of Kumar into the LDF, this would officially happen once the new party is announced.
Now all eyes are on which party in the Left alliance will take over the vacant Rajya Sabha seat.
The CPI, the second biggest ally in the LDF, in all probability would stake claim for it, as at the moment they do not have any representation from the state to the Upper House.
This could well turn out to be the next point of conflict between the two communist parties in the state, which at present has reached dangerous levels.
