The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government seemed to interpret the attendance of an Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader at the ‘Nava Kerala Sadassu’ chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Kasargode as an indication of rising bipartisan political approval for the programme and an “encouraging sign” that the Congress leadership’s “blind and spiteful” boycott of the Cabinet’s public outreach could implode dramatically.
At a press conference in Kasargode, Mr. Vijayan suggested the trickle of Opposition support for the government’s mass contact programme would soon become a flow.
“One can only imagine the anguish of Opposition legislators who can’t participate in mega public-government interfaces in their constituencies. Even the families of some Congress MLAs are asking them why they are not participating in the event,” he said.
Mr. Vijayan said several Opposition MLAs were privately disappointed that the Congress leadership in Kerala had unthinkingly denied them the unique opportunity to seek direct Cabinet redressal for various issues plaguing their constituencies.
“There is still time for the Congress leadership to reverse course and embrace the ‘Nava Kerala Sadassu, ’” he said.
Mr. Vijayan said the IUML had taken the correct stance by nominating a party leader from Malappuram as a Kerala Bank director board member. He said coalition politics had only a tertiary place in the cooperative sector.
Youth Congress organisational elections
Mr. Vijayan termed the charge that Youth Congress (YC) leaders had used forged voter ID cards to rig the recently concluded organisational elections “grave”.
“The dimensions of the electoral fraud might be extensive. The police are trying to gauge its extent, including whether the deceit had happened in the past and if the crime had corrupted voter’s lists. Other agencies are also involved, given the national security implications,” Mr. Vijayan said.
He said the Congress projected the YC elections as a healthy competition. But it turned out to be the reverse.
“If Congress could visit such a fraud on an internal youth wing election, what guileful measures would they not use against political opponents,” Mr. Vijayan asked. He said the police would probe the accusation that a high-profile political adviser hired by Congress leaders had orchestrated the electoral ID card forgery.
