Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) general secretary T.J. Chandrachoodan has said the sudden emergence of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Ramesh Chennithala as a candidate is clearly due to the uncertainty about the Vigilance court verdict on the plea to implicate Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy in the palmolein import case.
Participating in a ‘Meet-the-Press' programme, organised by the Kesari Memorial Journalists' Trust here on Saturday, Prof. Chandrachoodan said the Congress high command had proposed Mr. Chennithala's candidature only to meet the eventuality of Mr. Chandy not being able to contest the elections. This and the ongoing squabbles between various United Democratic Front (UDF) constituents showed how fragile and fragmented the UDF leadership was, he said.
Prof. Chandrachoodan said the sudden emergence of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader P.K. Kunhalikkutty as the mediator between the Congress and Kerala Congress(M) leader K.M. Mani was another proof of this. It showed how dependent the Congress was on the IUML, “which was engaged in appeasement of communal extremism” as was evident from the bomb blasts at Nadapuram recently. There was a time when the IUML was almost a secular organisation, but that was no longer the case, he said.
The RSP leader came down heavily on what he termed the UDF's attempt to scuttle the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government's decision to supply rice to all ration cardholders at Rs. 2 a kilo and said the UDF action clearly showed that they would not supply rice at such a price if they came to power. Describing the V. S. Achuthanandan government as the best that the State had seen, he said as far as the LDF was concerned, the election was one to seek continuity in governance and to ensure reaffirmation of the State's secular tradition.
Prof. Chandrachoodan said his party was not happy with the seats allotted to it by the CPI(M). The RSP, he said, had not received the seats it had asked for. The party would field Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran and others elected last time because they had better winning chance in the elections.
