UPPALA (KASARGOD): The opposition is running a communal campaign to bring down the Kerala government but the LDF is not shaken because the people have experienced the developmental and welfare work undertaken in the past four years and built a fort around it, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said while launching his front's electoral campaign in the northern districts. "We saw that in the local body elections," he went on to add.
Five years ago, the people expected little from the LDF because they just wanted "to get rid of the curse" that the UDF government had become, he noted. "But the LDF made a list of promises in its manifesto and every year, the government released its progress report," he said.
The LDF government implemented the GAIL pipeline, City Gas, which will bring cheaper piped cooking gas to kitchens, Edamon-Kochi Power Highway, K-Fone, Water National Highway initiated the Kasaragod-Thiruvananthapuram Semi High-Speed Railway line, National Waterways -- projects which people thought could not be implemented in Kerala, Vijayan underlined.
During crises such as Ockhi, Nipah, the great floods, and COVID, the government stood with the people and the people put up a united fight, he said.
A rattled UDF was now running a campaign saying the LDF was as rotten as they were five years ago. "The central agencies have also come forward with the responsibility of sabotage. A section of media has also joined these forces," the CM said.
Vijayan was speaking at the launch of the LDF's election campaign in the northern districts at Uppala near Manjeshwar in Kasaragod on Saturday.
The LDF's campaign -- Vikasana Munnetta Yatra or the March of Development -- is being led by the front's convenor A Vijayaraghavan. The campaign would touch seven districts and culminate in Thrissur on February 26.
In a departure from previous statewide yatras, the Chief Minister did not hand over the LDF's flag to the campaign captain Vijayaraghavan because of COVID restrictions.
'Communalism a danger to state'
Communalism is a danger to the state, warned the Chief Minister.
In the name of opposing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), organisations such as the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the Jamaat-e-Islami were following the same path of communalism, he observed. "All the three strengthen communalism and all the three are against the LDF," he said.
Without naming the Ayodhya temple, Vijayan said the Congress too was eager to contribute to what the BJP was building. "See what is happening in Puducherry. The Congress leaders have joined the BJP. That's the truth (of the party)," he said.
But the LDF does not compromise with communalism, he said. "That's the specialty of Kerala. Here, the majority of the people are with secularism," he said.
'CAA will not be implemented'
The Chief Minister said Kerala will not implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. "The home minister said CAA will be implemented after the COVID vaccination drive ends. But we had said it will not be implemented and it will not be implemented," he reiterated.
The CAA gives Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees and is contentious. But experts insist that the state government has no say in implementing it despite the CM's claims to the contrary.