The Hindu : Front Page : Veliyam alleges UDF-BJP pact

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Sunday, Nov 06, 2005

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Veliyam alleges UDF-BJP pact

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: State secretary of the CPI Veliyam Bharghavan said here on Saturday that the UDF and the BJP were on a secret pact in the byelection to the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat.

"The campaign has got well into its stride for both the LDF and UDF candidates, but BJP candidate C. K. Padmanabhan is nowhere to be seen," he said.

Mr. Bharghavan, while addressing a press conference, said the LDF was by no means worried about such a pact, because the UDF had already disintegrated and every section of society had turned against the Oommen Chandy Government.

"Tell me, who is with the UDF at the moment? Maybe, you can say Shibu Baby John. And, of course, the Muslim League. The Congress that leads the front had split vertically. And, if we just say yes, those still left in the UDF will make a beeline to join the LDF," he said.

Mr. Bharghavan said that with the recent attack on the Bishop House at Neyyattinkara, in which case the prime accused was a Congressman who had even contested elections under the party ticket, the entire Latin Catholic community had turned against the UDF. Sections that had stood with the UDF down the years had all turned against the front because of the way Mr. Chandy ran the Government.

He said the only option now for the UDF was to seek the BJP's help. The UDF's predicament would fit in admirably with the BJP's agenda in the State. BJP State president P. S. Sreedharan Pillai himself had gone on record that his party's immediate ambition was to open its account in the State Assembly.

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