THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even before the assembly election results are out, the Congress party in the Vattiyoorkavu assembly constituency is beset with internal strife. The local Congress leadership is feeling the heat ever since unused posters of Veena S Nair -- the UDF candidate -- was found in a scrap dealer’s shop in Vattiyoorkavu. The party held a preliminary probe into the incident and expelled Kuravankonam mandalam committee treasurer Balu.
The constituency had seen a triangular battle between Veena, LDF’s V K Prasanth and NDA’s V V Rajesh.
Among the trio, Veena was a late entrant which saw her rivals stride ahead across the constituency. With the Congress party releasing their poll funds only by the third week of March, Veena was way behind in campaigning which also meant that her campaign posters were printed at a later stage.According to district Congress president Neyyattinkara Sanal, three or four types of posters were printed for Veena.
“There was no conspiracy to work against Veena in Vattiyoorkavu. Balu had allegedly failed to paste all the posters across his mandalam. A day after the campaigning ended, he collected all the used and unused posters and sold them to earn money to meet his needs. I feel the abandoning of unused posters did not happen in Vattiyoorkavu alone,” Sanal told TNIE. The issue, which left the Congress embarrassed, saw the leadership taking swift action. The district committee’s findings have already been submitted to state president Mullappally Ramachandran.
Meanwhile, Veena said the ball is in the party’s court to take stringent action against the culprits. “I can vouch that lots of local Congress leaders had worked sincerely in the constituency to ensure my victory. It is the mandalam president who is answerable on how many posters have been used and unused as it is his responsibility to distribute it to the respective booth committees. I have done my role as a Congress candidate to the best of my abilities. The unused poster issue is not to defeat me, but the party,” Veena said.
A booth-level analysis of Congress’ prospects in Vattiyoorkavu is yet to be initiated as many local leaders, including Neyyattinkara Sanal, have been diagnosed with Covid-19. A similar controversy had erupted on unused posters in Kazhakoottam constituency, but the Congress candidate there -- Dr S S Lal -- refuted the allegations.