Kannur: CPM politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan, who is back in the election fray after two decades, will launch his formal campaign at Dharmadam constituency on Wednesday.
Mr Vijayan who reached Thalasserry on Tuesday got a warm welcome by the party workers at the railway station under the leadership of state committee members M.V Jayarajan, K.K. Ragesh and Thalassery LDF candidate A.N. Shamseer. Various area secretaries and local secretaries were also present at the reception.
Addressing the media, Mr Vijayan said that the LDF victory in the elections was imminent. “The UDF government was a big failure and they made the life of people worst,” he said, adding that the candidates the LDF had selected good candidates and presented before the people. On a query on electoral politics, he said he never felt a difference between party politics and electoral politics. “The party asked me to stand in the election and I obeyed it, that’s all,” was his cryptic reply.
Mr Vijayan has had a winning streak in elections, starting with his debut in 1970 when he wrested the Kuthuparamba Assembly seat from Praja Socialist Party. He retained the seat in 1977 but refrained from the electoral arena till 1991 when he again got elected from the same constituency. In the 1996 elections, he won the Payyannur seat, and became the electricity minister in the Nayanar ministry.
He did not return to electoral politics since taking over as the secretary of the CPM state committee in 1998. Mr Vijayan who spent some time meeting party leaders in Thalassery, left for Payyanur for taking bail in a warrant issued on a road blockade case. After that, he attended party functions at Kasargod.
