With the campaign for the forthcoming local bodies’ election reaching its zenith in the hill district of Wayanad, both the fronts are optimistic about victory in the Wayanad district panchayat poll.
Since the inception of the district panchayat elections in 1995, there has been a definite upper hand for the UDF in the district, except an unexpected sweep by the LDF in the 2005 elections with the support of the Democratic Indira Congress (DIC).
The UDF is fighting the election fully confident that it can easily repeat the 2010 victory in all the divisions. The UDF had won 13 out of the 16 divisions of the district panchayat in 2010. The BJP has fielded its candidates in all the 16 divisions.
District Congress Committee (DCC) president K.L. Poulose said that the presence of the BJP-SNDP combine would not affect the hopes of the UDF. ‘‘We have fielded as many as 50 candidates from the Ezhava community alone for the forthcoming polls and many of them are SNDP Yogam leaders. We are confident about the poll outcome,” he said.
The LDF, which has begun is third round campaign, is also quite confident about the outcome. Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] district secretary C.K. Saseendran said the election results would be the people’s verdict against corruption and anti-farmer and anti-tribal policies of the UDF government. The State government and the district panchayat have failed to execute projects for the comprehensive development of the district. People’s anger over this would reflect in the local bodies election, he said.
While the UDF is highlighting various development projects being executed by the State government and district panchayat, the LDF is placing emphasis on the comprehensive development of the district.
