The Hindu : Front Page : All set for Assembly session

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 19, 2007
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All set for Assembly session

Girish Menon

Thiruvananthapuram: The Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) will be under tremendous pressure to produce a report card of performance during the coming 25-day Assembly session. The UDF under Oommen Chandy will have to come out with new strategies to corner the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government and reply to criticisms about its functioning as the Opposition. According to Congress sources, the UDF is likely to combine its onslaught against the LDF in the House with agitations outside in order to focus public attention on the lapses of the V.S. Achuthanandan Government. In the previous Assembly session, the UDF had failed to push hard for Electricity Minister T.K. Balan and Local Self-Government Minister Paloli Mohammed Kutty’s resignations in connection with court verdicts against them. The Opposition had also failed to block a resolution, moved by the ruling bench, condemning a Palakkad court’s verdict ordering Mr. Balan’s arrest when the Assembly was in session. The session ended on a disruptive note with the UDF boycotting the rest of the proceedings on the final days. The previous session of the Assembly had showed up the limited options before the Opposition. It walked out of the House every other day highlighting one issue after another, besides boycotting the proceedings on a few occasions. The Opposition has new issues to highlight in the coming session, including the row over the Munnar evictions, agriculture crisis, and the spread of viral fever. The UDF leaders are now faced with the question of preparing a new strategy that expose the Government, while at the same time utilise the factional differences in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the differences of opinion in the LDF. There seems to be a difference in the UDF on the strategy to be adopted. One section wants the coalition to train its guns on Chief Minister, holding him solely responsible for the lapses of the LDF Government, whether it relates to the controversy over the Munnar evictions or tackling the spread of viral fever. In a recent Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee leadership meeting, Mr. Chandy had come in for criticisms for being soft on the Chief Minister. The other section would rather take issues one after the other and in the process attack Ministers irrespective of which party or faction they belong. The performance card, according to senior Congress leaders, would depend on identifying the enemy. “The UDF should not lose the opportunity of cornering Mr. Achuthanandan, whose actions have by now been publicly acclaimed. If this trend continues, it would only benefit the ruling front.

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