United Democratic Front (UDF) convener P.P. Thankachan has said that the UDF will not nominate any candidate who was in any way associated with outfits accused of having terrorist links.
Addressing a press conference after a meeting of the UDF held here on Wednesday to discuss seat allocation in the upcoming elections to the local bodies, Mr. Thankachan, however, declined to name any outfit.
Asked whether the Popular Front of India (PFI) was one among such outfits, he said that party workers were well aware which those organisations were.
Mr. Thankachan said that winnability will be the main criteria in selecting the UDF candidates. He said that Wednesday’s meeting had taken a strong resolution not to tolerate rebels at any cost. All the parties within the UDF fold had been asked to deal with rebels firmly and to oust them from the party.
Mr. Thankachan said that persons expelled from a party for rebellious stand during the local body elections will not be taken back at any cost during the elections to the Legislative Assembly.
He said that UDF allies will be allocated seats based on their regional strength in respective areas.
He said that a meeting of the leaders of UDF allies scheduled for September 13 will give a final shape to the election manifesto for the local body elections. The UDF leaders will then meet the Chief Minister to demand the removal of ministers Thomas Isaac and P.K. Gurudasan from the Cabinet over the issues of lottery and hooch tragedy.
The UDF position was that the ministers should either put in their papers owning up moral responsibility or the Chief Minister should remove them, Mr. Thankachan said.
He said that UDF will fight the coming elections on three planks – corruption on the part of the State government, corruption in local bodies governed by LDF, and stagnation of development of the State since LDF came into power.
Mr. Thankachan said that the LDF had withdrawn many powers which the UDF had given to the local bodies. For instance, UDF had empowered local bodies to allot toddy shops, a power which was withdrawn by the LDF government, he said. Mr. Thankachan said that the UDF aim was corruption-free good governance.
He said that there were no problems in the UDF or Congress as accused by the veteran Congress leader K. Karunakaran. Mr. Thankachan, however, said that the senior leader’s grievances need to be considered.
