Loyalties change in Kerala ahead of Lok Sabha battle

Kerala is witnessing political somersaults in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls.

The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) has decided to desert the Left Democratic Front (LDF) after 40 long years and return to the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF).

But if the Congress celebrated, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which heads the LDF, hit back.

The Marxists have roped in Philipose Thomas, a staunch loyalist of Defence Minister A.K. Antony and state Congress president V.M. Sudheeran.

Thomas has been named the LDF-supported independent candidate in the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency.

For 15 long years, Thomas was the district Congress committee president at Pathanamthitta. The Congress fielded him thrice in assembly elections but he never won.

Thomas has already begun his campaign, now wearing the traditional red garland associated with the Left.

The CPI-M managed another coup when it named V. Abdurahman, a Congress leader and former vice chairman of the Ponnani municipality, at Ponnani in Malappuram, the stronghold of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

The IUML is the second biggest ally of the Congress in the UDF.