Thiruvananthapuram: Close on the heels of a stupendous victory in local body polls, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is getting ready to embark on a tour of districts from December 22 as part of the Left Democratic Front's preparations for the Legislative Assembly elections early next year.
Friday's CPM state secretariat meeting will take a final decision on the chief minister's trip. The first programme is expected to be held in Kollam.
The chief minister, who would be touring all 14 districts, plans to camp in government guest houses and interact with prominent people from social, cultural and public life. The feedback received from such interactions would be considered while preparing LDF’s election manifesto for the forthcoming Assembly polls.
The district-level tour was planned prior to the local body polls. The party has planned the district tour programmes with the objective of ensuring the continuation of power in the state.
Coming as it is ahead of the Assembly polls, the next budget of the LDF government to be presented sometime in January will also be populist one containing several populist measures.
The district tour of the chief minister will be completed well before the presentation of the next budget.
The CPM and LDF leadership attribute the victory in local body polls to the government’s welfare programmes and development agenda which were widely received and recognized by the people. The community kitchens started during COVID pandemic and the free ration kit distribution which is still continuing had influenced the common man in a big way.
Besides, the LDF's campaign on misuse of central agencies to derail the development projects of the state government also went down well with the voters and it got reflected in the mandate.
In this backdrop, the chief minister will himself take the initiative to come out with more people's welfare programmes.
Ahead of the previous Assembly elections, Pinarayi had toured the state and interacted with social and cultural leaders. The interaction was held as part of the tour titled Nava Kerala Yathra.
MCC delays announcement
With Assembly elections to be held in four months, the state government is all set to announce a fresh 100-day action plan. The decision regarding the action plan is likely to be taken at the Cabinet meeting next week.
Though the Cabinet meeting on Thursday had planned to discuss the action plan, it was put off in the wake of the Model Code of Conduct in the wake of the civic polls.
The model code of conduct will remain in force in the state till December 23.
The next cabinet meeting will be held on December 24.
Ration kit distribution till April
Though the state government had earlier decided to distribute ration kits through ration shops till this month, it could be extended till April.
The Cabinet had observed that the victory in local body polls was the result of the government's pro-people welfare programmes which were well received by the people of the state.
The chief minister congratulated the ministers who successfully completed the projects undertaken by the respective government departments.