Communist Party of India (CPI) State secretary Veliyam Bhargavan said here on Sunday that Kerala Congress (J) leader P. J. Joseph need not think of returning to the Left Democratic Front (LDF) if rejected by the United Democratic Front (UDF).
Public meeting held
Addressing a public meeting held as part of the 18th State conference of the All-India Youth Federation (AIYF), Mr. Bhargavan said Mr. Joseph was guilty of political impropriety as he had kept the LDF in the dark about his moves.
“The LDF loses nothing from his defection. At its next meeting, it will discuss new parties joining it,” he added.
Inaugurating the meeting, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan called for reforming the public distribution system by streamlining the methodology for BPL identification.
“The Centre maintains that only 27 per cent of the population are below the poverty line. But committees appointed by the government have different figures. According to the Suresh Tendular committee, 38 per cent of the population was in the BPL category.
By taking into account the criterion of calorie intake, an expert committee set up by the Rural Development Ministry and headed by N.C. Saxena pegged the BPL percentage at 50. The Arjun Sengupta committee estimates that 77 per cent was below the poverty line. There is utter confusion in BPL identification,” he said.
He said Shashi Tharoor's resignation from the post of Union Minister of State for External Affairs alone would not end the alleged corruption in IPL.
Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran; Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran; Revenue Minister K P. Rajendran; Forest Minister Benoy Viswom; V.S. Sunil Kumar, Rajaji Mathew Thomas, MLAs; CPI leaders Pannian Ravindran, K.E. Ismail and C.N. Jayadevan; were present.
Earlier, party workers took out a rally in the city.
