CPI(M) losing its bastions in State: Sudhakaran

Congress leader and MP-elect of the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency K. Sudhakaran said the massive ‘surge of votes’ in favour of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the Lok Sabha election in the State was the people’s mandate against political violence and the LDF government’s indifference to it.

Addressing the UDF supporters and the public during his tour of the constituency here on Sunday to thank the electorate, he said that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who had failed to understand the factors that led to the debacle of his party in the State, was in for tough times.

In the near future, the CPI(M) would face in the State the same fate it met with in West Bengal and Tripura, he said. The election results showed that the party was already losing its strongholds in the State.

‘Across parties’

“The surge of votes polled for the UDF has no class, colour, caste, religion and politics. The UDF polled votes that cut across party affiliations,” Mr. Sudhakaran said. In the Kannur constituency, the results showed that he had secured the votes of thousands of CPI(M) workers, he added.

Mr. Sudhakaran, who is vice president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, said the votes the UDF had won reflected the electorate’s outrage against the LDF in the State and the ‘communal fascism’ at the Centre.

If the Chief Minister respected democracy, he should resign as the LDF had lost in most of the 140 Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha election, he said.

The LDF government could not reconstruct even 10 of the 35,000 houses destroyed in the floods in August, despite crores of rupees landing in the State’s exchequer from all over the world.

He said the Chief Minister and his family visited Geneva to attend a UN-organised reconstruction meet using public funds that could have built at least 100 houses.

On slain workers

Remembering slain party and UDF workers in Kannur and Kasaragod, the Congress leader said that Youth Congress workers S.P. Shuhaib, Sharat Lal and Kripesh and IUML worker Abdul Shukkoor, would have joined the jubilation had they been alive.

“It saddens us that our youngsters have been murdered. The CPI(M) should lay down its dagger,” he added.

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