The LDF on Tuesday decided to resume and intensify its agitation for Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s resignation to face a judicial probe into his office’s role in the solar scam.
After a meeting of the LDF State committee here, the front convener Vaikom Viswan said the character of the agitation would be decided on October 21, at the next meeting of the committee. The day’s meeting decided to take out two processions to cover all places in the State, one starting from Kasaragod and the other from Ernakulam on November 1.
North and south
The first procession would reach Thrissur on November 12 covering the northern half of the State and the second would reach Thiruvananthapuram on November 12 covering the southern half of the State. Mr. Viswan said all LDF committees from the booth level would be activated in the meantime.
The LDF’s assessment, apparently, is that the time has come to sound the conch shell for the upcoming Lok Sabha election battle, especially in the light of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s two-day visit to the State, during which she launched a couple of ambitious pro-poor programmes such as the ‘Zero Landless Kerala’ project.
Addressing the media, Mr. Viswan derided the scheme launched by Ms. Gandhi saying that the ‘Zero Landless Kerala’ project was a ‘publicity stunt’ and it had to be seen whether there was any sincerity involved in the project.
He said a Chief Minister who ‘harboured criminals in his office’ had no right to continue in office. The LDF had withdrawn its blockade of the Secretariat when the government bowed to the Opposition demand for a judicial probe into the solar scam. But the Chief Minister later went back on his assurance to include the role of his office also as a key point in the terms of reference for the judicial probe. Also, there had been an all-out mission to scuttle the police investigation and court scrutiny of the case. Mr. Viswan said the Nedumbasserry gold smuggling case, which surfaced subsequent to the solar scam, reinforced the ‘people’s conviction’ that the Chief Minister’s office had turned into a base camp for criminal elements, because, in this case too the ‘links reached to members of his personal staff.’
He said the LDF would continue to obstruct the Chief Minister’s public functions and (after making the necessary preparations) announce a blockade of the Cliff House, the Chief Minister’s official residence.