Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Adulation for VS quite natural: Pinarayi

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has said that there is nothing surprising about the prominence that Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has received on the campaign front.

Participating in a meet-the-press programme organised by the Kesari Memorial Journalists' Trust here on Monday, Mr. Vijayan said it was quite natural for someone who had led the LDF government for the last five years to receive such warm reception from the people.

Showering of adulation on political leaders was a natural phenomenon. It would become a problem only when such adulation went into one's head, he added.

The CPI(M) State secretary also brushed aside questions about a possible nexus between the BJP and the CPI(M) triggering the withdrawal and sudden reinstatement of the Janata Dal (United) candidate in Malampuzha, where Mr. Achuthanandan is in the fray.

Anybody who cared to visit the area would see the BJP and the UDF together ruling several local bodies. Mr. Achuthanandan was a prominent leader of the CPI(M) and nobody would accuse him of having adopted a communal stand at any time in his career, he said.

Mr. Vijayan said there was no understanding between the LDF and the Jamaat-e-Islami and there was no change in the CPI(M) stand towards the organisation.

The Jamaat-e-Islami had its own yardstick for assessing various political parties and alliances and it decided its stand at the time of elections independently. In the current elections too, it must have arrived at its own stand and taken a decision, he explained.

He also described as ‘positive' the reported absence of any pastoral letter relating to the elections this time. Dialogues had always been on with Church leaders on various issues, he added.

Taking exception to Defence Minister A.K. Antony's allegation that the LDF had no achievement to place before the people, Mr. Vijayan wanted to know what gain Mr. Antony would have by running down the gains that the State had made.

The State had brought an end to farmer suicides, turned public sector enterprises that were sought to be sold off during the UDF rule profitable, created over one lakh new posts in the State service, revived the traditional industries giving employment to thousands of people, implemented debt waiver schemes for farmers and fisher folk and intervened in the market spending huge sums to hold the prices of essential commodities, he pointed out.

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