The UDF should have accommodated Idukki MP P T Thomas with a seat elsewhere considering his performance as a parliamentarian and status as a decent person, said Kerala Congress (B) chairman R Balakrishna Pillai. “The replacement of P T Thomas in Idukki was the need of the UDF as his words and deeds in the Gadgil-Kasthurirangan reports had hurt a section of people. However it is a fact that he is one of the best parliamentarians and a man of character. Hence he should have been accommodated in some other seats, he said.
Pillai, was participating in Nilapad-2014, a series of meet-the-press with politicians, an initiative of Ernakulam Press Club in connection with the general elections, on Tuesday, which incidentally was the 80th birthday of the veteran.
Regarding the impact of the U-turn of Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan, Pillai quipped: “He was in UDF and now has joined the LDF. If it was a gradual one it would have been credible. But this overnight change is indigestible as the people are watching all these every minute.” He stated that he or his party is not demanding a ministerial berth in the Oommen Chandy government. Regarding the present state of affairs in the UDF, Pillai said without naming anyone: “the words of some doesn’t have the value of an old sack.”
He said the decisions in the UDF are taken by ‘an available UDF’ similar to the CPM’s ‘available PB.’ “The decisions are taken with the UDF partners available in Oommen Chandy’s room,” he said.
He said coalition politics is in a deteriorating stage in the state which is considered as its cradle. “I feel sad as a parent who had to watch the demise of his child,” Pillai, who is considered as the founder leader of UDF, commented on the exit of K R Gowri and M V Raghavan from the UDF.
He said that the UDF has an upper hand in the elections, primarily due to the wrong candidate selection by the LDF. “This may be due to their overconfidence. For example the LDF candidate in Ernakulam is more familiar to the UDF candidate than the LDF cadre. This cannot be compared with the earlier elections when the Communist party fielded independents like Joseph Mundassery. It was based on pure merit unlike the present. Most of them were close to Congress and received favours from Congress,” he said.