Ramesh Chennithala terms decision to join LDF hogwash by Veerendrakumar and son

Thiruvananthapuram: UDF chairman and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala termed the JDU decision to quit the front ‘political deceit’.

Mr Chennithala said it was the UDF that gave sanctuary and protection to the JDU when they were ‘kicked’ out by the LDF. The JDU had not offered any convincing reason for breaking away from the UDF, he said. It was the responsibility of M.P. Veerendrakumar to spell out the “losses suffered by the JDU after it joined the UDF”.

Mr Chennithala said JDU did not even show the minimum courtesy to say why it was leaving. The UDF had done no harm to Mr Veerendrakumar, who had been humiliated and sent out of the LDF. But even while being part of the UDF and participating in the “Padayorukkam” rally across Kerala, JDU had the audacity to negotiate with LDF leaders on the sly. “Everyone knows why JDU lost all the seats it contested in the Assembly elections.”

He said JDU had a minister in the Chandy government.

“We gave agriculture portfolio to JDU nominee K.P. Mohanan whereas the LDF used to give them lightweight departments like transport. Similarly JDU had enjoyed berths in corporation boards, coop bank and devaswom board representations”, said Mr Chennithala, claiming each party in the UDF was given portfolios equitably.

KPCC president M M Hassan also said JDU’s walkout was meant to protect the selfish interests of Mr Veerendrakumar and family rather than to uphold any ideology. “Where in the rest of the country are they going to fight the NDA in the company of the LDF other than Kerala? Nobody would believe the hogwash being dished by the father and the son”, Mr Hassan said.