Thiruvananthapuram: Socialist Janata
Democratic leader M P Veerendrakumar on Friday said CPI(M)-led LDF
government in Kerala belied the expectations of people by
proving to be "flop" in all vital areas.
Veerendrakumar, whose party is a constituent of
Congress-led UDF now, said the V S Achuthanandan government
not only failed to offer a credible and united administration
but "dithered" on vital issues like corruption about which
CPI(M) and its feeder outfits had waxed eloquent while in
opposition.
Veerendrakumar, who had been a key player of the Left Front
in Kerala for 45 years before snapping ties with LDF on eve of
last Lok Sabha polls, said never before in the state a Left
government had put up such an "unimpressive" performance.
"In the last five years, we have been witness to the
spectacle of the chief minister, his party and ministers
pulling in different directions", he said.
The issue of irregularities and corruption in operation of
outside state lotteries was raised by the Chief Minister.
He alleged that it involved "corruption to the tune of Rs
80,000 crore" and that the money generated through the lottery
business could even have been diverted for terrorist
activities.
Still, the ministry could not take a united position on the
mode of probe to unearth the scam as the chief minister and
Finance Minister differed on it, Veerendrakumar said.
The much-hyped anti-encroachment drive at Munnar, launched
as a personal initiative of Achuthanandan, had to be dropped
mid-way under pressure from his own party and other Left
constituents as they had their vested interests to protect, he
alleged.
CPI (M) also let down the tribals by siding with a private
windfarm which acquired vast swathes of land that belonged to
the tribal population through "fraudulent means" at Attappadi
in Palakkd district, he said.
He dismissed the suggestion that it was purely due to
denial of seat that he (in JD-S then) had pulled out of the
coalition on the eve of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
Veerendrakumar later floated the SJD.
"If the seat alone was the issue, we might not have left
LDF. There was the question of attitude and approach..we found
it very uncomfortable and we were forced out... This is not
the way the partners in the Left Front are treated in West
Bengal," he said.
Congress approach on inter-coalition issues, on the other
hand, was more generous and decent, he said.
The SJD leader said the seat-sharing talks in UDF were in
progress, adding, the electorate would make their choice in
the Assembly polls based on their honest assessment of the
situation.
PTI
