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Puthuppally bypoll: Campaign hots up, Kerala CM lists govt achievements
The top brass of the Congress in the state, including leader of opposition VD Satheesan, have been stationed in Puthuppally for the past few weeks to hold public rallies and neighbourhood meetings
KOCHI: Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan Wednesday listed the achievements and social welfare efforts of the LDF government at a public meeting in bypoll-bound Puthuppally in a bid to persuade voters of the Assembly constituency to choose his party CPI(M) at the ballot.
The bypoll in Puthuppally, scheduled on September 5 with the votes to be counted three days later on Sept 8, was necessitated by the demise of sitting Congress MLA and former chief minister Oommen Chandy on July 18.
“We announced and disbursed ₹1000 as Onam allowance for NREGS workers both in rural and urban areas. We spent ₹46 crore to pay allowance to 1.5 lakh workers. This Onam, we allocated ₹25 crore as benefits for workers of coir industry, ₹140 crore for workers of cash-starved KSRTC, ₹50 crore for cooks and helpers in government schools, ₹25 crore in the form of rubber subsidy, ₹43 crore for cashew board and ₹5.5 crore in the form of income support for employees of plantations and factories which have remained shut. We handed over free Onam ration kits to over 6 lakh beneficiaries. These are the kind of interventions we have made across various sectors,” CM Vijayan said at the meeting.
At the same time, he mocked the opposition parties for being scared of the government’s interventions.
“There is a section of people who are scared of the word ‘kit’. When they hear ‘kit’, they get scared. The games they have played behind this, time will prove,” he said.
The chief minister, who was on his second round of campaigning in Puthuppally, also spelled out the progress the government made in the sectors of infrastructure development, national highway works, power, and industry modernisation.
“We are working on the hill highway project of 1189 kilometres and cutting through 13 districts. The cost is ₹3500 crore and funded through KIIFB. We have completed 155 kms so far and spent ₹1003 crore. For the 655-km long coastal highway which will run through nine districts, the cost is ₹6500 crore and there is a special rehabilitation package. Once realised, it will bring great progress in the state,” he said.
CM Vijayan claimed that his government is working with the goal of eliminating extreme poverty from the state by November 1, 2025. “Which other state can do what we do? How are we doing this? Through our unity and fraternity. We live with a secular mind without any discrimination,” he said.
He exhorted the voters to choose CPM candidate Jaik C Thomas in the upcoming bypoll by claiming that the LDF has never compromised with communalism.
The CM’s campaign, scheduled to cut across all eight panchayats of the constituency, is expected to provide fresh impetus to the CPM which last won an election in the constituency back in 1967. From 1970 till 2021, through a series of 12 elections, the voters of Puthuppally chose to side with Oommen Chandy, who won his debut election as a Youth Congress leader, became chief minister twice and emerged as the biggest mass leader of the Congress in the state. When he died on July 18, Kerala saw one of the most-attended public funerals in recent memory. His grave in Puthuppally is still visited by scores of people who come to pay respects.
It didn’t take long for the Congress to declare Chandy Oommen, Youth Congress leader and son of the late former CM, as its nominee in the Puthuppally bypoll. Chandy, widely seen as the frontrunner in the election, has been engaged in a feverish campaign to reach as many households in the constituency in a bid to attract votes. The top brass of the Congress in the state, including leader of opposition VD Satheesan, have been stationed in Puthuppally for the past few weeks to hold public rallies and neighbourhood meetings as part of a well-oiled campaign.
Satheesan said at a public meeting on Wednesday, “In the huge majority that Chandy Oommen will get in this election, the majority of votes would come from women. It will be a warning by the women of Kerala to the Pinarayi Vijayan government. The most atrocities and crimes against women and children have been reported in this term.”
As for the BJP, which won just 8 percent of the votes cast in the 2021 election, the party has rallied around its district president Ligin Lal who is the official candidate in the bypoll. Top leaders of the BJP including state president K Surendran and union ministers V Muraleedharan and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, addressed campaign meetings.
