Thiruvananthapuram: CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Thursday admitted hesitatingly though that the forthcoming Chengannur bypoll will be a referendum on the performance of the state government. At a press conference here Kodiyeri said the performance of the central government and also the previous Oommen Chandy government would also come in for evaluation by voters.
He said the party was confident of striking a severe blow to the UDF and BJP in the bypoll. The CPM state secretary said there political situation on the ground had changed since 2016 Assembly polls. “Today the Janata Dal of Veerendra Kumar is working for our victory. Mani’s party is not working for UDF in Chengannur. Even NDA is facing problem with BDJS which had managed to secure votes in the last elections by portraying its SNDP connections, not supporting the BJP candidate,” he said.
Kodiyeri reiterated that barring RSS, the LDF would accept votes from all sections. His statement comes in the wake of CPI publicly stating that the LDF does not require KC (M) votes to win Chengannur. The CPM state secretary said the party will have new district secretaries in Kollam, Ernakulam and Thrissur after the bypoll. The change is being made in the wake of elevation of the incumbent district secretaries K. N. Balagopal and P. Rajeev to the state secretariat and K. Radhakrishnana to the central committee.
On the issue of exempting tourism sector from hartals, the CPM leader said it would urge the government to evolve a political consensus. “The chief minister has already expressed the positive stand that the government has on the issue. Even during my tenure as tourism minister we had made a move twice, on this matter. However, at that we could not reach a political consensus. Hope this time it happens,” he added.
