Sonia goes easy on Left in Kerala

KOCHI: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday landed in Kerala for a day-long campaign tour but while calling for a fresh mandate for the UDF coalition remained circumspect about being critical of her rivals in the state who bolster her party at the Centre.
"Only UDF has an economic agenda for the state. The Leftist opposition (LDF) has nothing positive to offer to the people of the state.The UDF is seeking your vote on the basis of its sterling performance and it wants to continue it with your support," she told a well-attended rally in Kottayam.
She claimed credit for Kerala remaining a model of communal harmony. "It is only UDF that can ensure social justice, communal harmony, and stability because it has always pursued the path of conciliation and cooperation of all sections of society," she said.
Throughout, she concentrated on the economic agenda of UDF under Oommen Chandy and refrained from refering to the previous Antony government and the Karunakaran imbroglio.
Perceiving that plantations dominated Kottayam economy, Sonia recalled how the rubber and coconut prices had increased four-fold during UDF rule.
While in Kottayam, Sonia didn���t bring in the Left, she was a bit bolder in Pathanamthitta. During UDF rule, she said amidst clapping, "People could sleep peacefully at their homes in contrast to the fear of violence during the Leftist regime."
The UDF, she said, earned the ire of both Leftists and Rightists because of its "pro-poor and pro-weaker section policies."
Meanwhile, the ruling UDF had much to celebrate on Tuesday, having won a judicial nod to go ahead with its prestigious "Smart City IT Project" in Kochi which was put in abeyance on orders of the Election Commission.
CM Oommen Chandy was all smiles when he met the media after the Kerala High Court said there was nothing illegal in signing the Rs 1,500 crore project.
Justice S Sirijagan quashed an EC order preventing the government from signing the project.
The judge said permitting the state to go ahead with the project would not amount to violating the model code since the decision on starting the project was made in 2004.
In fact, it was delays in court of a case related to the project that held back the signing, he observed.