Various political fronts took out rallies in the Gandhi Nagar division of the Kochi Corporation on Sunday to mark the culmination of the month-long bypoll campaign. The division will go to polls on December 7.
While the United Democratic Front (UDF) highlighted what it termed as the pathetic state of affairs in the division, represented by Left Democratic Front (LDF) councillors for the last three decades, the LDF tried to impress the voters by drawing a comparison between the development initiatives during the 10 months of the LDF ruling the civic body with 10 years of the UDF regime.
The UDF has once again fielded District Congress Committee general secretary P.D. Martin, who had lost to K.K. Sivan by a margin of 115 votes in the last election. Bindu Sivan, the wife of deceased councillor Sivan, is the LDF candidate. Bharatiya Janata Party’s district mandalam president P.G. Manojkumar is the party candidate in the division.
Mr. Martin, who kicked off his campaign with the slogan ‘Gandhi Nagar will change’, alleged that the LDF councillors who represented the division over the years failed to address any of the development needs of the people. Gandhi Nagar must be the only Corporation division where tube lights were still used for street lamps even as the conventional street lamps in most of the other divisions were replaced with LED lamps, he said. Waterlogging, poor sanitation facilities and absence of good roads were the visible signs of neglect of LDF representatives, he added.
Countering the allegations, former Mayor C.M. Dinesh Mani, who led the LDF campaign, said the UDF-led regime that was in power in the Corporation during the past decade blocked all the development initiatives of the division’s councillors. It was the LDF-led administration, which came into power 10 months ago, that gave shape to the development aspirations of the people of the division, he said.
He also highlighted the housing project, which is being implemented for the residents of the P&T Colony, with support of the Greater Cochin Development Authority as an example of the development initiative.
The counting of votes will be held on December 8.
