THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The LDF on Thursday decided to put the ruling coalition on election mode right away with two state-level jathas, focused campaign from booth to Assembly-level, beginning this month.
The LDF state leadership which met at the AKG Centre here decided to organise south zone jatha led by CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan from Thiruvananthpuram and north zone jatha led by CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran from Kasargod in the second week of February. The two jathas will culminate in a big public meeting at Thrissur on March 2.
Leaders of all 10 constituent parties will be part of the jatha team. The district-level LDF campaign programmes will be completed by January 25 and the Assembly segment-level campaigns by January 30. The entire exercise is being carried out to activate and put the entire LDF election machinery beginning from booth level, in election mode.
The meeting was presided over by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Later at a press conference, LDF convenor A Vijayaraghavan said the main slogan of the jathas and campaign was "remove Modi Government at the Centre". The miseries heaped on the people by the neo-liberal and corporate oriented policies and the communal divide being created by RSS and BJP will be highlighted during the campaign.
He said UDF's soft Hindutva in Sabarimala issue will be exposed. The central government's failure in all fronts including agri sector, employment, small and medium industry and the communal agenda of RSS-BJP would be discussed widely during these jathas.
On veteran leader V.S. Achuthanandan's absence from LDF meeting on Thursday, Vijayaraghavan said there was nothing unusual about it. "VS has not been attending recent meetings of LDF because of health issues," he said referring to reports that the veteran deliberately stayed away because of the presence of his bete noire R.Balakrishna Pillai in the meeting.
The veteran was instrumental in getting the Kerala Congress (B) leader convicted in Idamalayar corruption case after a sustained legal battle against corruption. This was the first meeting of LDF after the recent expansion .
