The Congress leadership has redrafted its strategy to meet the twin political challenges posed by the CPI(M) and the BJP and to ensure its political space in the State.
The party leaders, who attended an all-party meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, clearly indicated the Congress line in the coming days. The Congress party has been staging a series of agitations for the last several weeks trying to focus on the corruption in the BJP related to the sanction of medical colleges, besides focusing on the political violence involving the BJP and the CPI(M) cadres.
It held a sit-in in Kozhikode on the day the BJP called a hasty hartal to protest against the murder of an RSS worker in the State capital. KPCC president M.M. Hassan has announced a 24-hour hunger strike on August 15 against political violence.
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala has come out with a Facebook post asking why Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was silent about the corruption of his party leaders exposed by an inner party commission.
The fact that the Chief Minister had convened the meeting in the context of the Assembly session which begins from Monday and that the meeting materialised on the day when Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was in the State as part of the BJP’s live wire campaign to make a headway nationally was not lost on the Congress leaders.
They had initially planned to keep off the all-party meeting, since it was not clear what kind of role the Congress and the UDF would have since the CPI(M) and the BJP tried to work out a formula through bilateral talks.
The party leaders agreed to participate only after an assurance from the government side that the UDF and the Congress will given their space. The images that came out of the all-party meeting, with Mr. Chennithala, sitting beside the Chief Minister was enough to satisfy the UDF.
The UDF and the Congress have now decided to use the floor of the Assembly to confront the government. Debates on the Kerala Medical Education (Regulation and Control of Admission to Private Medical Educational Institutions) Bill, the Kerala Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, and the Goods and Services Tax Bill would give ample occasion for the Opposition to make an attempt to put the government on the mat. The Opposition will also make an attempt to put the LDF and the BJP on the backfoot for the political violence.
In short, the Assembly session, which has been convened exclusively for passage of a few legislation and regularise ordinances, will be a continuation of the tension witnessed in the House during the budget session.
