With the State inching towards election mode, the United Democratic Front (UDF) gave a tweak to its political strategy by picketing the Secretariat and various district collectorates on Wednesday citing a series of lapses of the State government in the post-flood period and administrative paralysis.
Senior coalition leaders along with thousands belonging to the rank and file courted arrest across the State during the picketing programme, which was timed ahead of the Assembly session beginning Friday.
Inaugurating the State-level picketing in front of the Secretariat, Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala alleged that the State was being ruled by a government that did not benefit even thousand people when it completed thousand days.
The promise to reconstruct Kerala in the post-flood period remained only on paper, with the Pinarayi government failing to launch a single development project of its own in the thousand days it was in power, Mr. Chennithala said.
He made fun of the huge security convoy for the Chief Minister comprising 28 police vehicles and ambulances. He was not against providing security for the Chief Minister, but questioned the appropriateness of the size, he said.
CPI(M) State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was making controversial statements in order to remain in the spotlight and had no answer for the corruption allegation in the sanction of liquor bars. Mr. Chennithala trained guns on the Bharaitya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Chief Minister’s strategy was to weaken the UDF and strengthen the BJP, as could be seen from his actions on the Sabarimala issue, he said.
In Kozhikode, KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran, while inaugurating the picketing in front of the collectorate, said the UDF would observe “black day” on the day the LDF government completes its 1,000 days in office.The UDF had picketed Kottayam collectorate on January 22 in view of the all-Kerala yatra of Kerala Congress (M) leader Jose K. Mani.
In their speeches, coalition leaders focused mainly on the failure of the State and Central government.
Those who lead the the picketing and courted arrest included N.K. Premachandran (Kollam), M.K. Muneer (Palakkad), K. Muraleedharan (Thrissur), P.K. Kunhalikutty (Malappuram), P.J. Joseph (Kannur), Anoop Jacob (Idukki), Benny Behanan (Ernakulam), Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan (Alappuzha), K. Sudhakaran (Kasaragod), and E.T. Mohammed Basheer (Wayanad).
