KOCHI: If solar scam and bar bribery cases played spoilsport to UDF’s chances in the 2016 assembly elections, political observers opine that the gold smuggling and LIFE Mission corruption cases could adversely affect the LDF government’s prospects in the coming polls.“Things won’t be that easy for the LDF this time. There are several major corruption issues and controversies that could negatively affect the prospects of LDF. Both UDF and BJP have enough issues to target the LDF government,” said political observer P Sujathan.
Apart from the gold smuggling and LIFE Mission corruption charges, there are allegations of back-door appointments made by the present government in various public sector undertakings. Appukuttan Vallikkunnu, former CPM leader, senior journalist and political commentator, said the gold smuggling case and other corruption charges against the LDF government would definitely have an impact in the assembly polls.
“It’s premature to say that these issues won’t have any effect in the assembly polls just by looking at the local body election results. The allegations and charges levelled against the government are very serious in nature. May be, the Covid-19 situation has helped the government keep these burning issues out of focus for some time. It’s not going to be a cakewalk for LDF and they have already understood it. The government’s decision to conduct adalats in each district is an indication of how things have become tough for LDF to stay in power,” he added.