The Hindu : SUCI to focus on `real issues'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Sep 13, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

SUCI to focus on `real issues'

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI SEPT. 12. The SUCI State secretary, C.K. Lukose, has said that his party is putting up its candidate, Francis Kalathunkal, in Ernakulam, as the other parties were not highlighting the basic problems faced by the people.

At a news conference here on Friday, he said the two political fronts were raising `peripheral' issues and not the real issues of globalisation and communalism. He said the BJP was following a hard Hindutva line while the Congress was adopting soft Hindutva policies. Both the BJP-led Central Government and the Congress-led State Government toed the line of globalisation, he added.

Mr. Lukose said the SUCI candidate might not win the election, but he was in the field to raise the questions that the other candidates refused to examine.

KC(S) to back Paul

Meanwhile, the Kerala Congress(S) chairman, P.M. Sunny told a news conference here on Friday, that his party would support the LDF candidate, Sebastian Paul. He said the Antony Government was a total flop. He alleged that some Congress factions and other UDF partners were trying to isolate and humiliate the senior leader, K. Karunakaran.

Equi-distance policy

The Samastha Nair Samajam will forgo a policy of maintaining `equi-distance' from the UDF and the LDF, K. Radhakrishnan Nair, general secretary, has said.

The decision on which front to support in the by-poll will be decided at the director board meeting of the SNS, which will at Guruvayur on September 14.

Mr. Nair said both the fronts had neglected the Nair community in the State. The SNS would support the candidate who would be of help to the Nair community, he added. He said that it was high time the fronts ended the practise of fielding candidates of a particular community in election held in Ernakulam.

NDP decision

Our Staff Reporter writes from Kollam:

The National Democratic Party (NDP) will formally announce its decision regarding its support to a candidate for the Ernakulam Lok Sabha by- election, on September 15.

At a press conference here today, the NDP State vice-president, V.K.B. Vengassery, said the UDF candidate, M.O. John, and the independent candidate, V. Vishwanatha Menon, had requested the NDP's support.

Mr. Vengassery said the matter has been entrusted to a three-member sub-committee. The final decision would be based on the report submitted by the sub-committee. He said both the LDF and the UDF were resorting to caste politics. The NDP, he said, has 35,000 active members in the Eranakulam Lok Sabha constituency and hence, is a force to reckon with.

Mr. Vengassery was critical of the `equi-distance policy' adopted by the Nair Service Society (NSS). He said there should a consistent approach on political issues. So, the `equi-distance policy' has no relevance.

He also said that the NDP and the NSS are separate entities. The NDP leaders, Kanjikkal Ramachandran Nair and Kolamkode Ravindran Nair, were also present.

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