Thiruvananthapuram: Setting aside his issues with the party leadership, CPI(M) veteran VS Achuthanandan on Saturday said price rise and corruption under the UPA rule are the basic electoral themes of the Lok Sabha polls.
Deflecting questions at a meet the press here on his alleged "somersault" on issues like TP Chandrasekharan murder case, he alleged that the media was trying to drag such matters to divert attention from fundamental topics like price rise and corruption under the UPA regime at the Centre and the Oommen Chandy Government in Kerala.
"You are seeking to divert attention from basic issues. The fundamental issues of the election are price rise, corruption and atrocities on women," he said.
The emergence of the nonagenarian leader as the LDF lead campaigner has fuelled speculation in local media that he has sunk his long-drawn factional feud with bête noire Pinarayi Vijayan.
Barraged by queries over this change of tack, Achuthanandan refuted the suggestion that he had compromised on issues he had highlighted to safeguard his position as Leader of the Opposition and regain his lost berth in the CPI(M) politburo.
To queries, Achuthanandan said he was satisfied with the finding of the party inquiry into murder of Marxist rebel Chandrasekharan that a local party functionary had conspired to kill him out of personal animosity.
"I have made my position clear repeatedly on this issue. You are indulging in a futile exercise by harping on it again and again," he said.
Reaffirming faith in the party, Achuthanandan recalled his decades old association with the Communist movement and the role he had played in the internal struggles that led to the formation of CPI(M) in 1964.
