KOCHI: 570/600! That is the number of promises the LDF government has delivered from its 2016 election manifesto, according to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Buoyed by the LDF’s thumping win in the local body polls and ahead of the assembly elections, he seems to project it as the points on his self-appraisal form. Pinarayi mentioned the schemes and programmes implemented by his government at a breakfast meeting and later at the ‘face-to-face’ programme with the who’s who of the state’s commercial capital on Wednesday.
“In the run-up to the 2016 assembly elections, Pinarayi, then the CPM state secretary, went on a similar tour across the state. Now, as he listens to recommendations and suggestions on development from a cross section of Kerala society, he looks to be confident of retaining his chair,” said a prominent personality, who attended the CM’s breakfast meeting at the Ernakulam Guest House.
Writer N S Madhavan, India’s former ambassador to the Netherlands Venu Rajamony, cardiac surgeon Jose Chacko Periapuram, OEN India’s Pamela Anna Mathew, Geojit’s C J George, Jayalakshmi Silks’ Govind Kamath, filmmakers Aashiq Abu and Renji Panicker, UNEP’s Muralee Thummarukudy and Kochi Mayor M Anilkumar were among the dignitaries who attended the breakfast meeting.
“The CM didn’t talk much as we were also invited for the ‘face to face’ programme,” he said, adding that the Left government has delivered on most of the promises and the industrial climate has been fairly good in the last five years. Also, some of the big projects such as the GAIL pipeline, IOC’s Puthuvype project, Alappuzha bypass, which were all stuck during the UDF regime, have progressed fast,” he said.
Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry president K Harikumar, who attended the programme, echoed the views. “When the CM says he has delivered on 570 out of the 600 election promises, it means he is keeping a tab and knows what he’s talking about. Despite going through two floods and Covid-19, we have to give it to him for handling the situation very well,” he said.