With hardly ten days left for the election, battle cry for capturing Kochi Corporation has become well and truly sounded with rival fronts engaging each other in a no-holds-barred attack on Tuesday.
The United Democratic Front (UDF) lined up its combat team in full strength with Ministers K. Babu and V.K. Ebrahim Kunju; MLAs, Dominic Presentation, Benny Behanan and Hibi Eden; K.V. Thomas, MP, Mayor Tony Chammany and GCDA chairman N. Venugopal collectively batting for a second term for the UDF in the Corporation.
Listing out Smart City project, JNNURM water supply, Kochi Metro and flyovers among the ‘unprecedented achievements’ during the UDF rule compared to the 33 years of ‘LDF misrule’ before that, they asked for another five years for continuity of development.
Drinking water shortage, bad roads, and water-logging, the perennial problems of the city no longer dominate campaign, as the UDF governing committee resolved them, they said.
Mr. Chammany said that there was no anti-incumbency factor and that the question was not about individual contests to 74 divisions but whether the development politics of the UDF or the regressive outlook of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) was good for the future of Kochi.
‘Bogus promises’
The LDF wasted no time as the CPI(M) district secretary P. Rajeev flanked by coalition partners dealt a point-to-point rebuttal of the claims of the rival.
He said that the UDF was out to hoodwink people with bogus promises and false claims after being shattered by the groundswell of public opposition against its five years of all-round failure. The LDF was the first to place a development agenda before the electorate and the UDF, left with no other option, was forced to follow it now.
The LDF listed Ro-Ro service, housing for the poor, Brahmapuram solid waste treatment plant, sewage treatment and stray dog menace among what it regarded as only a few in a long list of failures.
“A city that boasts of becoming Smart City doesn’t even have public toilets,” Mr. Rajeev said. He also pilloried the UDF governing committee for not making any progress in the construction of the Thammanam-Pulleppady Road and the Goshree-Mamangalam Road despite the government allotting Rs.25 crore for land acquisition.
While the UDF claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would go down even in the three divisions where it has considerable support in this election, the LDF warned the electorate of UDF councillors crossing over to the BJP.
