The CPI (M) highhandedness towards the JD(S) came on Wednesday, a day before JD(S) chief H D Deva Gowda was to meet Left parties, including CPI(M), at Tumkur in Karnataka to hold discussions on the Third Front.

The impact of the poll-eve crisis in the LDF would depend on the next course of action from the humiliated JD(S), which has five MLAs, including a minister. JD(S) has strong presence in Vatakara, Kozhikode, Alathur and Pathanamthitta constituencies, all contested by the CPI(M). The JD(S) has declined to take the Wayanad seat, offered in place of Kozhikode. Besides, whether the CPI(M) accepts the CPI nominee for Ponnani would also turn decisive for the LDF.

The CPI state executive on Wednesday decided not to surrender the seat for furthering the mainstream political dreams of Abdul Nazer Madani, who has nominated Hussain Randathani as the "Left" candidate for the seat, currently represented by Muslim League leader and Union Minister E Ahamed.

The CPI has selected Kozhikode-based A P Kunjamu, a party fellow traveler, for Ponnani. The bank employee has been a regular columnist on newspapers run by the Jama-at-Islami, Mujahideen and Popular Front of India in Kerala.

Last week, the LDF had announced that Ponnani would get a widely acceptable independent to take on the Muslim League. Then CPI (M) Ponnani area committee on the record put the name of Randathani as the Left candidate. The area committee meeting was attended by central committee members Paloli Muhammedkutty and A Vijayaraghavan. Soon Randathani began campaigning.

Given such a scenario, it would be interesting to watch the outcome of the LDF committee slated on Thursday. To clear the deadlock, it has inevitable that one of the parties would have to climb down from its defiant posture. If the CPI nominee is asked to return, the LDF would face the allegation that it was dancing to the tunes of Madani, who is outside the front. The mess-up in the Left camp over Ponnani would have its impact on CPI-CPM relations in other constituencies also.

CPI(M) has steamrolled its way into the seats of other junior partners too. In the first round of the seat-sharing exercise, the RSP had to return empty-handed. The CPI(M) was not ready to give back the Kollam seat it had wrested from the RSP in 1999.

The CPI (M) had also been eyeing the Kozhikode seat, occupied by the JD(S) since the 1980s, on the ground that the Communist clout has gone up considerably in the constituency after the delimitation exercise.

But the JD(S) was not willing; it decided to stick to its demand for the Kozhikode seat, represented by state president M P Veerendrakumar. The party had also threatened to withdraw its nominee Mathew T Thomas from the Cabinet if the demand was declined. The matter was to come up for a final review at Thursday's LDF meeting but the CPI(M) went ahead and finalized its own man for the seat.