Kerala polls: State Congress chief seeks votes of LDF backers to beat BJP in Manjeshwar

By Express News Service
KASARAGOD: Congress state president Mullappally Ramachandran’s last-day enchantment to the LDF supporters to vote for the UDF in Manjeshwar “to stop the BJP” has not gone down properly with the LDF and the BJP. 

The UDF candidate AKM Ashraf endorsed the view of Ramachandran. “The LDF is not in the picture in Manjeshwar and so all the secular voters should come together and elect me and defeat the BJP,” stated Ashraf.

LDF candidate and CPM chief VV Rameshan stated Ramachandran had no sense of Tulunadu and was speaking gibberish. “The LDF made considerable progress during the campaign. Today, the fight is between the LDF and the BJP. Mullappally’s appeal comes due to his sense of defeat,” he stated.

BJP state president Ok Surendran, who’s the NDA’s candidate in Manjeshwar, stated the souls of Sarath Lal and Kripesh wouldn’t forgive the Congress for making an attempt to strike up an alliance with the LDF. “Mullappally’s appeal is a shameless begging of votes. It exposed the helplessness of the Congress,” he stated and added that the Congress chief made a public enchantment for LDF vote sensing a defeat by the hands of the NDA in Manjeshwar.

Ramachandran held his floor and stated “no one should shed crocodile tears” over Youth Congress employees Sarath Lal and Kripesh, who have been murdered allegedly by CPM employees in February 2019.

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He, nevertheless, refused to simply accept the assist of the SDPI, the political outfit of the People’s Front of India, a far-right Islamic organisation. The SDPI had publicly introduced its assist to Ashraf. The LDF had struck regional understandings with the SDPI in 72 meeting constituencies, he added.

Veteran Congress chief Oommen Chandy stated the UDF didn’t want any outdoors assist to win in Manjeshwar.

Congress chief in Manjeshwar Manjunath Alva stated the bottom actuality within the constituency was completely different from different locations. “Here, only 10% of the voters are affiliated to political parties, and so such an appeal will not have much impact. The UDF has reached out to all sections of society and will register a comfortable win in Manjeshwar,” he stated.

Manjeshwar is seeing a decent three-cornered combat. In 2016, Surendran misplaced within the constituency by 89 votes to Indian Union Muslim League’s PB Abdul Razak. However, within the by-election held in 2019, necessitated by the loss of life of Razak, the IUML defeated the BJP by almost 8,000 votes. The LDF has a 26% vote share within the constituency. In 2006, it got here from the third place to win the constituency, pushing the IUML to the third place.