THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The KPCC fact-finding committee has concluded that there was trading of votes in Nemom constituency in favour of the BJP candidate resulting in the party opening an account in the Assembly. The sub-committee headed by KPCC treasurer Johnson Abraham has recommended that two block committees and 168 booth committees be terminated for their lapses.
The sub-committee report highlights that the local leadership did not rise to the occasion to fight the elections well despite the dictum of the KPCC and AICC leadership. JD (U) candidate V. Surendran Pillai, who was until then with the LDF, was fielded at the last moment. He came a distant third with just 13,860 votes after BJP’s O. Rajagopal romped home polling 67,813 votes followed by CPM’s V. Sivankutty garnering 59,142 votes. The report also says that the candidature of Mr Surendran Pillai confused the voters as already Mr Rajagopal had a sympathy wave in favour of him.
“After talking to the candidate and the local level leaders in Nemom, we realised that the local leadership had failed in the work. There is no point in having such booth-level committees which did not work for the UDF candidate which is unpardonable,” a sub-committee member told this newspaper. Apart from Mr Johnson, the other members included KPCC general secretary Babu Prasad and KPCC secretary Jaison Joseph.
The sub-committee also recommended to terminate the activities of the Seva Dal in Nemom constituency. The work of the UDF Thiruvananthapuram district committee has also come under the scanner. Another recommendation is that Thiruvananthapuram DCC secretary Mudavanmugal Ravi’s service should be terminated.
The KPCC fact-finding committee report is expected to be taken up in the next UDF meeting as well. Already the JD(U) leadership under M. P. Veerendra Kumar is peeved with the KPCC leadership for not taking action against those who had played spoilsport in Palakkad constituency in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections where he was the candidate.
