Union Minister for Civil Aviation Vayalar Ravi has said that the United Democratic Front (UDF) would win over 100 seats in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the State.
Addressing a Meet-The-Press programme here on Tuesday, Mr. Ravi likened the performance of the UDF to the Indian Cricket team's World Cup victory, saying that the UDF would hit a century. Replying to a query on who would be in the shoes of Dhoni for the UDF, Mr. Ravi said there was no doubt that it would be Oommen Chandy.
Earlier, the Union Minister said the Communist Party of India (Marxist) would go to any extent to remain in power, proof of which was the reported clandestine dealings the CPI (M) had with organisations like the Jamaat-e-Islami. The Left Democratic Front should not be just talking about its development agenda, but should also include corruption and action against corruption in its agenda. However, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan was adopting double standards on this issue.
Mr. Achuthanandan, according to Mr. Ravi, was fully aware of the corrupt deals in the SNC Lavalin deal, but without taking any action as a Chief Minister, had instead written to the general secretary of his party. Mr. Achuthanandan, who was repeatedly saying that he would imprison UDF leaders on charges of corruption, was turning a blind eye to such deals within his own party, for which he would have to reply to the public. This also showed that his statements on his declared war against corruption were not sincere, Mr. Ravi said.
Continuing his attack on Mr. Achuthanandan, Mr. Ravi said the Chief Minister had proved to his partymen that it was not possible to pin him down within the CPI (M)'s strict disciplinary framework. However, it was the public who had to pay a price for this, he said, adding that the LDF had used power to take revenge on their political rivals, which would not be the UDF's approach once in power. Koshy M. Koshy, District Congress Committee acting president, and D. Sugathan, former MLA, too were present.
