Thiruvananthapuram: Four legislators from Kerala who won the Lok Sabha polls are set to bid goodbye to the Kerala Legislative Assembly in the next session that would be held from May 27 to July 5. On the opening day on Monday, the assembly will pay condolences to Kerala Congress (M) supremo K M Mani, who passed away in April.
Hibi Eden, the Ernakulam MLA, will attend Monday's assembly session but will be absent after that. K Muraleedharan, the Vattiyoorkavu MLA, too will be present on Monday, but will later take a call on attending rest of the session. Hibi and Muraleedharan won the elections from Ernakulam and Vadakara Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.
However, Adoor Prakash, who won the Lok Sabha poll from Attingal, will present a motion on an issue affecting Konni, his assembly constituency. Though K C Joseph was to present a motion on Tuesday, he has backed off.
M A Arif, the Aroor MLA, will take part in the discussions on Wednesday.
The rules
If a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is elected to any House of the Parliament, he or she will have to resign 14 days after the election declaration is issued.
The winning MLAs are free to take part in the assembly session in this duration.
Only after the Election Commission of India receives the notice from the returning officer, the election declaration will be issued. The notice from Kerala has been already sent to the apex election body.
The Lok Sabha election winners can attend assembly session till June 9 if the declaration is issued on Sunday.
Session soon after the polls
The poll analysis could take up most of the assembly session as it has been convened within a week of the declaration of the Lok Sabha election results.
Despite sweeping the Lok Sabha polls in Kerala, the members of the United Democratic Front (UDF) are unhappy owing to the backlash Congress received in the election nationwide. The UDF MLAs would be heading to Kerala Assembly complex on Monday with mixed feelings of jubilation and despair.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) too would find itself in a similar situation as none of its candidates won the Lok Sabha polls in Kerala despite winning an overwhelming majority to form the government at the Centre.
However, the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) has the most unenviable position – it faced a debacle in Kerala and elsewhere in the country.
If MA Arif had not managed to secure victory in Alappuzha, the LDF would have drawn a blank in Kerala. The ruling Left is more likely to counter any attack on it by pointing at the debacle the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) faced across the nation. If not for Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the state of Congress-led (UPA) in the Lok Sabha would have been much worse.
If not for Coimbatore and Madurai in Tamil Nadu, the CPM would have had only a lone representative in the Lower House of the Parliament. The CPI was able to win two seats, compared to the one last year. However, both the Left parties have Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to thank for this.
