The victory of the Congress in Kerala is likely to prove a crown of thorns for the party.
Not only has the election been very poor for Congress as a party — subtracting from its moral leadership — but its allies have already indicated that they plan to drive a hard bargain.
Two allies of the communist parties, which deserted the left alliance in anticipation of a defeat at the polls — may also rejoin the left alliance, giving LDF the numbers to form the next government.
Out of the total 71-72 seats with the Congress led UDF, 20 will be with the Muslim League and 10 with Kerala Congress — two local allies known to be troublesome.
Congress itself will have only 38 seats.
The allies can also boast of a much higher success rate than Congress in the elections as Muslim League lost just 4 seats that it contested on.
KM Mani, the Kerala Congress leader, has already said that he believes he has been shortchanged in the seat allocation and looks forward to a greater role after the elections. He merged his party with one of the renegades from the Left alliance, but did not get ‘proportionate’ representation in seat allocation before the election.