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LDF will face defections: CM

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM NOV. 24. The Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, said here on Monday that the LDF would face defections if it comes to a showdown in the Assembly.

Stressing that none would be able to undermine his Government, the Chief Minister challenged the Leader of the Opposition and his detractors in the party to demonstrate their majority.

The Chief Minister told press persons that the Assembly was the proper forum to test the majority of the Government. Normally, the House needs to meet only in February. However, it might meet in January, and the Opposition would get sufficient number of opportunities to vote out the Government.

If anyone wanted the House to be summoned earlier for the purpose, they should give a list of 71 MLAs supporting them to the Governor. ``If the Governor is satisfied, he will ask me to convene the Assembly, and the House will be summoned in 48 hours. If I do not have the majority, I will resign.''

Mr. Antony said that the Opposition was trying to entice UDF MLAs describing its strength of 40 in the Assembly as a `fixed deposit'.

However, there would be erosion in the `fixed deposit'. The LDF had lost one vote in the recent Rajya Sabha election.

He said that the Congress high command would try to settle the problems in the State unit after December 1. Knowing this, the LDF had given ultimatum to his detractors that the party should be split before December 1. The LDF State Committee meeting on Sunday was not intended to discuss any problems of the people or agitations programmes but to decide on setting the deadline. It feared that the issues would be settled after December 1.

Referring to the Opposition statement that it believed that the Congress leader, K. Karunakaran, had majority support, Mr. Antony said that it should believe Mr. Karunakaran regarding the palmolein case also.

The Leader of the Opposition, V. S. Achuthanandan, should believe Mr. Karunakaran's contention that he was innocent and withdraw the petition Mr. Achuthanandan had filed before the Supreme Court. The Leader of the Opposition should also apologise to the people and Mr. Karunakaran for creating all the noise about the case.

He said that some people were trying to oust him from the time he was sworn in as the Chief Minister. By joining hands with them now, the CPI(M) had renounced its own stand on several issues like the palmolein case.

The Chief Minister said that he was not for an argument with the PSC over the recent Government decision to extend the validity of the PSC rank list. The Government would be requesting the PSC to extend the validity and it expected the PSC to cooperate. If there were any problems, the PSC should better be sorting it out with the Government instead of precipitating a controversy. Though there were several allegations against the PSC, he had not tried to create a controversy over it. The Government wanted its relations with the PSC to be apolitical.

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