The 2024 Lok Sabha election results were indeed a milestone for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala, however, on June 12 it saw open protests by M.V. Shreyams Kumar, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Kerala State president claiming his party has not received adequate recognition in the coalition for quite some time.
Mr. Kumar told journalists that LDF did not discuss recent decision made to nominate Jose K Mani of Kerala Congress (M) and P.P Suneer of Communist Party of India (CPI) to Rajya Sabha.
“We were invited into this coalition back in 2018 when we joined them. And We did not approach any other front since then. We have had several discussions within LDF and with the leading CPI(M). However, they have never been addressed,” he said.
According to Mr. Kumar, this was RJD’s Rajya Sabha seat that got assigned to CPI in 2022. “That seat should have come back to us this time,” he lamented.
Similarly, Mr. Kumar observed that his party request for a Lok Sabha seat was also disregarded as its workers felt let down by those developments.
Not happy about no Cabinet berth
The RJD leader said that his party’s bitterness is due also to its exclusion from the LDF government’s cabinet formation despite having only one MLA K.P Mohanan representing Koothuparamba.
Moreover, Mr. Kumar argued against Janata Dal (Secular)’s presence in Kerala Cabinet which constitutes part of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA): “And H.D Kumaraswamy – JD(S) is now a Union Minister” added Mr. Kumar.
