THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the Congress-led UDF has become ineffective in taking on the LDF, the ensuing local body poll will be a direct fight between the LDF and the NDA, BJP president K Surendran has said.He was speaking at a meet-the-press programme organised by the Kesari Memorial Journalists’ Trust here on Tuesday. “Only the NDA is a powerful alternative to the LDF. As seen at the national level, the Congress has totally crumbled,” said Surendran.
The BJP leader said UDF was witnessing hegemony of the Muslim League. This has caused major concern among the Christian community that has traditionally supported the UDF. With the Kerala Congress leaving the UDF, the Congress-led camp has become totally weak in the central Travancore, he said.
Claiming that corruption will be a major issue in the upcoming local body poll, Surendran said both the LDF and the UDF are in the dock for corruption. He said gold smuggling and other illegal activities came to the fore only after Central agencies started probing it.
“Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who scuttled the bar bribery case also let UDF leaders go scot free in other cases. It is unclear what benefit Pinarayi got by scuttling such cases,” Surendran said. He added that Kerala witnesses a peculiar situation where both UDF and the LDF cover up each other’s misdeeds.
Surendran alleged that LDF ministers and UDF leaders have stashed their ill-gotten wealth overseas. He said the benefits of many Central projects unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi were not reaching the grassroots due to corruption in civic bodies. He urged people to vote for NDA to evict corrupt elements in local bodies.