RSP's decision to join UDF bandwagon hasty: Chandrachoodan

In remarks that show growing discontent in the Revolutionary Socialist Party, a constituent of the Opposition Congress-led UDF in Kerala, the party's national General Secretary T J Chandrachoodan today rued that RSP's decision to pull out of the CPI(M)-headed LDF was 'hasty'.
"There was no need for RSP to cross over to the UDF camp in such haste,' he said at the party's district unit meeting here.
The RSP, which had two MLAs in the previous assembly, after one member, Kovoor Kunjumon quit shortly before the May 16 assembly polls, had failed to win even a single seat out of the five it contested in the polls.

This is the first time that RSP does not have a member in the state assembly.
Chandrachoodan said he was saddened that the leadership had failed to prevent the shift.
"There was no need to shift to the UDF camp so hastily. In this front, how long we will be able to continue, needs to be seen", he said.

However, Chandrachoodan made it clear that RSP would not leave the UDF soon.
Praising LDF's one month-old-rule, he said it was going in the right direction.
Party state secretary A A Azeez however defended the decision to join the UDF, saying it was jointly taken by the leadership.

The RSP had quit the LDF after being denied a seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
It joined UDF and successfully contested from the Kollam seat, in which N K Premachanran emerged victorious.