The Hindu : Front Page : PDP is campaigning for LDF on its own: Karat

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Wednesday, Apr 08, 2009
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PDP is campaigning for LDF on its own: Karat

Special Correspondent

Says there will be no change in the composition of LDF

Prakash Karat says all that the CPI(M) has done is to accept PDP’s support.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat has said that he has been given to understand that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is campaigning for the Left Democratic Front (LDF) on its own.

Replying to questions at a meet-the-press organised by the Kesari Memorial Journalists’ Trust here on Tuesday, Mr. Karat said he had been informed by party State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan that the PDP was campaigning on its own. The CPI(M), he said, was clear in its position that there would be no change in the composition of the LDF and there was no question of any new party being brought into the alliance.

The CPI(M), he said, could not be held accountable for the actions of any organisation that offered support from outside. It had become the pattern in Kerala for organisations outside political alliances to declare support for individual candidates and parties. The PDP too had declared support for the LDF and all that the CPI(M) had done was to accept it.

Asked how the CPI(M) could afford to share the dais with PDP leaders who were facing charges of terror links, Mr. Karat said the sharing of dais had taken place only at the beginning of the campaign. “The PDP will conduct its own campaign supporting the LDF candidates. This is what I have been told,” he added.

He rejected the suggestion that the ‘rift’ between Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and Mr. Vijayan would affect the chances of the LDF in the Lok Sabha polls. “Did it affect us in 2006,” he asked and said all inner party issues of the CPI(M) were being resolved internally and there was no possibility of such issues affecting the poll prospects of the party or the alliance.

Replying to a question, Mr. Karat said the Janata Dal (Secular) was offered a Rajya Sabha seat when it refused to accept the Wayanad seat in lieu of Kozhikode. The offer was that the JD(S) would be given a Rajya Sabha seat if it was defeated in Wayanad, he said.

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