Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan gave an impetus to the election campaign of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the district by addressing public functions on Tuesday.
Mr. Achuthanandan inaugurated the LDF election convention in the Mattannur constituency where CPI(M) Central committee member E.P. Jayarajan is contesting.
Mr. Achuthanandan, who reached here by train on Monday night and was received by a large number of LDF workers and leaders, including Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy and Devaswom Minister Kadannappally Ramachandran, began his election campaign tour in the morning after laying floral tributes at the statue of Communist leader the late A.K. Gopalan at Caltex Junction here to mark the observance of AKG Day by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
After inaugurating the convention here, he went to Peravur to inaugurate the poll convention of sitting MLA K.K. Shylaja who is seeking re-election.
Mr. Achuthanandan's refrain in his address here was that corruption cases involving United Democratic Front (UDF) leaders would be brought to their logical conclusion. He sought to portray the UDF as a front comprising leaders involved in corruption scandals when they had been Ministers in the previous UDF Ministry. The 2G Spectrum scam involving the United Progressive Alliance government headed by Manmohan Singh had eclipsed all earlier corruption scandals, Mr. Achuthanandan said, adding that the UDF leaders here were no less corrupt.
Without naming Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader P.K. Kunhalikutty, he alleged the former Industries Minister in the previous Ministry headed by Oommen Chandy had links with illegal sandal factories and was instrumental in their mushrooming. He alleged that Congress leader and the former Forest Minister K. Sudhakaran had benefited from the favour offered to the sandal factories and the sale of softwood at the erstwhile Gwalior Rayons factory at Mavoor in Kozhikode at a throwaway price.
Terming as a ‘Himalayan lie' the Opposition allegation that he had not acted against illegal sandal factories because his son was facing charges of taking bribes to help the factory owners, he said the Opposition was levelling unfounded allegations one after another to counter the LDF government's efforts to expose the corruption during the previous UDF Ministry. He said the Congress' attempt to drag his son into the lottery scam had failed when his second letter to the Prime Minister to demand a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the lottery scam called for extending the probe to include the allegation against his son.
Despite repeated demands, the Union government was yet to order a CBI probe into the operations of lottery tycoon Santiago Martin and the Bhutan lottery, he said.
On the investigation ordered following the disclosures made against IUML leader P.K. Kunhalikutty by his relative K.A. Rauf, Mr. Achuthanandan said the UDF leadership feared that more of its leaders would soon be behind bars. The palmolein case was also being considered for re-investigation, he said.
He said that while the LDF had completed its seat-sharing exercises without any hurdles, the UDF was marred by dissension. The LDF would highlight its pro-people policies during the election campaign, he said.
Apart from Mr. Jayarajan, the function was addressed by Ms. Sreemathy, CPI(M) leader M.V. Jayarajan and Communist Party of India leader C.N. Chandran, among others.
