‘VS Achuthanandan skipped certain seats due to murder politics’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Politics of violence will be a major point of discussion in the general elections in the state and it is the reason why

CPM veteran V S Achuthanandan

is desisting from campaigning in certain constituencies, opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said here on Saturday.


He said that Achuthanandan’s campaign programmes in the northern districts includes only Kozhikode and had left out Kannur, Kasaragod and Vadakara constituencies. “The murder of Youth Congress activists Kripesh and Sarathlal, Shuhaib in Kannur and T P Chandrasekharan in Vadakara committed by the CPM would be the reason why Achuthanandan is not campaigning in these constituencies,” Chennithala said.

He said that the believers in all the religions were against the CPM for its stand in religious issues. “While the CPM stand in Sabarimala has hurt the believers, its move to bring Church bill clearly indicates its motive to curb the properties of the Church. Also, the recent statement of CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan that women should be allowed to enter Sunni mosques has turned the believers against the CPM,” Chennithala said.

He said that the LDF government had completely mismanaged the state’s finances and finance minister T M Thomas Isaac should resign. “While the treasury that should be open round-the-clock on the last day of March, it was completely shut down as there were no funds. Bills worth Rs 6,000 crore are to be cleared. The government is not disbursing flood relief assistance or the funds from chief minister’s distress relief fund,” Chennithala added.

He also criticised

Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board

(KIIFB) that on Friday completed issuing

masala bonds

in international market worth Rs 2,150 crore. He said that the inherent danger was that for the funds received, the government would have to pay a very high interest rate of 9.72%. He said that by the time the funds would have to be repaid, the responsibility of payment would be on the next government and there were no projects in KIIFB that would yield returns.