KANNIYAKUMARI: Days after the Congress announced its candidates for the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha and Vilavancode by-election seats, leaving CPM cadres dejected, the latter bounced back to work to ensure the grand old party's victory in both constituencies. CPM State Secretary K Balakrishnan also visited the functionaries at Kuzhithurai on Saturday to boost their morale.
The Vilavancode constituency was declared vacant after former Congress MLA S Vijayadharini defected to the BJP last month. Vilavancode is situated in the western parts of Kanniyakumari district, bordering Kerala, and is a stronghold of both CPM and Congress. The CPM cadres in the district as well as the party high command had requested the DMK-Congress alliance that it is a part of to allocate the Vilavancode by-election seat to the CPM, but it was eventually allotted to the Congress, which fielded its candidate Dr Tharahai Cuthbert.
This had left the CPM cadres dejected. Balakrishnan visited them on Saturday to give fillip to the party cadres to work for the victory of Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha candidate Vijay Vasanth, also from Congress, and Cuthbert. Balakrishnan told TNIE that although we had urged them to allocate Vilavancode to us, it went to Congress following alliance talks.
Balakrishnan said, "Since our sole aim is to defeat the BJP, our cadres have begun preparing for the election in Vilavancode as well as Kanniyakumari constituencies to ensure the victory of Congress' candidates. CPM District Secretary R Chellaswami said the party's cadres were returning to normalcy.