The Janadhipathya Rashtriya Party (JRP), launched before the 2016 Kerala Assembly election, has decided to support the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
A meeting of the executive committee of the party in Kozhikode on Tuesday decided not to field any of its candidates in any of the 20 constituencies. “We had already held several rounds of discussions with LDF leaders, mainly CPI State secretary Kanam Rajendran and CPI(M) leader and Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes A.K. Balan in this regard,” party leader C.K. Janu told The Hindu on Wednesday.
She said Mr. Rajendran and Mr. Balan had promised that her party would be accommodated in the LDF at a later stage.
After its formation, the JRP had aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and contested from Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad in the 2016 Assembly elections.
She later severed ties with the NDA as she felt that the coalition had failed to meet the expectations of the tribespeople and the JRP had not got any importance in the coalition.
One of the demands of the party was that the Centre declare all blocks and taluks with 50% population of the Scheduled Tribes as scheduled areas. Nothing had come of the party’s demand to accommodate its members on boards and corporations attached to Union Ministries though Ms. Janu had held talks with BJP president Amit Shah in this regard.
“But now we have decided to wholeheartedly extend our cooperation to the LDF,” she said.
