The Hindu : Kerala News : Campaign kicked off for Thiruvambadi byelection

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Monday, Nov 13, 2006
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Kerala

Campaign kicked off for Thiruvambadi byelection

Staff Reporter

The ruling and Opposition fronts conduct election conventions

MEETING OF LEADERS: KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala; Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy; Union Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed; and the Indian Union Muslim League leader P.K. Kunhalikutty in Kozhikode on Sunday. — Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup

KOZHIKODE : With the United Democratic Front (UDF), the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) choosing their candidates for the byelection to the Thiruvambadi Assembly constituency, the campaign has been kicked off.

The LDF conducted an election convention on Saturday and the UDF on Sunday.

Inaugurating the LDF convention, CPI(M) State secretary Pinarai Vijayan said the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the Congress had the same stand on the U.S., which had pronounced death sentence for the former Iraq president Saddam Hussein. The Manmohan Singh Government had not yet demanded the withdrawal of the sentence to the Iraqi leader. "This was a disgrace to the nation," he said.

The byelection, necessitated by the death of Mathai Chacko, MLA, was crucial for the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the LDF as the party has to retain the seat wrested from the IUML in the previous election. For the UDF, a victory would be a morale booster after losing those elections.

UDF convention

Speaking to presspersons after the meeting of the UDF high power committee here on Sunday, UDF convener P.P. Thankachan said the Government had begun to misuse the official machinery. The CPI(M) was trying to manipulate the voters' list in the constituency, he alleged. Efforts to issue house numbers to houses without numbers were on so as to create votes for the members of these houses. The Election Commission should not support this. The UDF would fight this move, he said.

Expressing confidence, Mr. Thankachan said the present political situation was favouring the UDF. The last six months of LDF rule had turned farmers, minorities and common people against the LDF. This `ire' would be reflected in the Thiruvambadi election, he said.

Mr. Thankachan said the personal staff of Ministers and Government employees were being utilised for the election. He said the Kerala Farmers Debt Relief Commission Bill brought in by the LDF was `a gimmick.'

"Not even a single rupee of compensation will be paid to the farmers under the provisions of this Bill," he said.

He said the committee meeting adopted a resolution unanimously requesting non-implementation of the death verdict against Saddam Hussein. He said the UDF would begin agitation against the anti-people policies of the Government. It would organise public meetings in all Assembly constituencies on November 18. A proposal to reconstitute the various levels of committee of the UDF would be taken up at the next meeting.

The meeting was attended by KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala, Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy, Congress leaders C.V. Padmarajan and K. Sankaranarayanan, IUML leaders E. Ahamed, P.K. Kunhalikutty, M.K. Muneer and E.T. Mohammed Basheer, K.M. Mani, leader, Kerala Congress (Mani), M.V. Raghavan of CMP, Shibu Baby John, Revolutionary Socialist Party (Bolshevik) and K.S. Rajan Babu of JSS.

An election convention of the UDF was held at Thiruvambadi. Leaders speaking at the convention, including Mr. Chandy and Mr. Ahamed, used a major part of their speech in defending their respective parties stand vis-à-vis death sentence to Mr. Saddam Hussein, as a reply to Mr.Vijayan's allegation of Congress and IUML supporting the U.S.

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