NEYYATINKARA: Former CPM MLA R Selvaraj will kickstart a full-scale campaign after Easter, to counter the political blitzkrieg unleashed by his erstwhile comrades in recent days.
On Wednesday, Selvaraj met UDF convenor P P Thankachan. In a short meeting held at the MLA quarters in Thiruvananthapuram, both the leaders discussed the possible cooperation in Neyyatinkara bypoll. Janakeeya Vikasana Samithi (JVS), an outfit led by Selvaraj, would conduct a vehicle campaign in all the panchayats and the municipality coming under the Neyyatinkara constituency on April 9 and 10.
The campaign would elaborate the circumstances which led to Selvaraj’s resignation from the Assembly and the CPM, before the electorate.
It would also be used as an opportunity to answer all the allegations raised by the CPM against Selvaraj. The meeting held at the JVS office here on Wednesday did not discuss about the symbol to be opted by the candidate at the bypoll.
It was assessed that any decision would depend on the decision by the UDF after the New Delhi trip by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala to appraise the Congress high command.
The meeting which lasted for nearly three hours was attended by about 60 representatives of JVS from all the panchayats and the municipality. The office near Neyyatinkara hospital junction would be formally inaugurated on Saturday.
Meanwhile, K Muralaeedharan MLA stuck to his opposition to accommodate all those crossing over from the CPM to the Congress camp.
He said here on Wednesday that there was indeed difference of opinion in the Congress about the candidature in the Neyyatinkara bypoll, because of the very fact that Congress is a democratic organisation.
“But everything will be decided finally by the high command under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and everyone including me would adhere to that,” he said, while delivering the keynote address at the conference of the Kerala Secretariat Association.
He opined that the situation in Neyyatinkara is favourable for the victory of a UDF candidate with comfortable margin.
Muraleedharan had struck a dissident note at the KPCC meeting held on Tuesday by expressing his strong reservations about gifting away the Assembly seats held by the Congress for long to all those people crossing over from the CPM to the Congress. He targeted Selvaraj on this score.