THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The New Delhi mission of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala to find a solution on the fifth minister demand of the IUML has given rise to further confusion and rumours, prominent among them being reports about a formula to restrict the number of ministers of IUML to the existing four and handing over the Speaker’s post to the IUML nominee. The proposal doing the rounds is to make G Karthikeyan a minister and one of the IUML ministers the Speaker. The slot vacated by the IUML minister will be filled by Manjalamkuzhi Ali, as per the proponents of the plan. However, according to highly- placed sources, the Speaker has rejected the proposal. With lot of pulls and pressures from coalition partners and demands within its own fold, the Congress is caught in a tight bind. ‘’The Chief Minister had never discussed with the Speaker the matter of a change in post, though many other issuesincluding political ones came up during their meeting recently,’’ sources close to the Speaker told Express. ‘’I don’t know what is happening,” the Speaker had reportedly told his trustedaides on reports appearing in a section of the media. The Chief Minister had met the Speaker on Monday, a daybefore the KPCC meet held here on Tuesday. Chandy and Chennithala are said to have got the approval of the party high command for the induction of Anoop Jacob into the cabinet early next week. But with no concrete decision on the IUML ministership issue, the induction is likely to get delayed. After the talks in Delhi, it has almost become certain that R Selvaraj will contest the Neyyatinkara bypoll as the UDF candidate. With the handing over of the crucial post of Speaker to a coalition partner being a remote possibility since the UDF Government is having a wafer-thin majority and constituent parties can play spoilsport ,a face-saving formula was presented by some, though no formula was discussed during the recently-held KPCC office-bearers meeting and at political affairs committee meet. On their return from Delhi on Thursday, both Chandy and Chennithala were non-committal of any formula. ‘’We had apprised the high command of the prevailing situation so as to find a solution,’’ said Chandy. He also said that a final decision will only be declared at the UDF meet. ‘’The IUML demand is an issue which has to be sorted out,’’ Chennithala told Express. Meanwhile, government chief whip P C George said that he would not like to interfere in the issue. ‘’It is better that more than two ministers including one from the majority community are sworn in as ministers on the same day,’’ he said. The IUML leadership has taken a stand that the matter will be dealt after a final word came from the Congress. Coinciding with the Chandy-Chennithala mission in New Delhi, there are rumours that a minor reshuffle of the cabinet is imminent and Chennithala will step down from the post of KPCC chief and take over the home minister’s post. Chandy and Chennithala had met Union Ministers A K Antony and Vayalar Ravi apart from Madhusoodanan Mistry, AICC general secretary in charge of the state, before meeting Sonia Gandhi on Thursday.
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