Kottayam: For those who expected a “K-Rail will come”-like one-liner from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday, there was utter disappointment. In his first election rally in Puthuppally assembly constituency ahead of the September 5 bypoll, the Kerala CM chose to play his favourite role – that of a development champion – and was least bothered to respond to the recent allegations against him.
In his speech lasting over one hour, Pinarayi spoke in detail about the development initiatives of his first and second governments and said Puthuppally is yet to match up with other places in the state in terms of development.
In effect, Pinarayi just amplified the Left Democratic Front’s (LDF) poll narrative in Puthuppally instead of setting a new one or giving a twist to it. Without naming the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), he said he did not understand why some people were afraid of the LDF’s call for a reality check of Puthuppally’s development.
To the hundreds of LDF cadre gathered at Puthuppally, Pinarayi presented a progress report of his two governments and tried to explain how the Left front was building a new Kerala since 2016 when the state, he alleged, was a hub of despair.
He kept asking the audience to imagine what could have happened to Kerala if the LDF was not elected in 2016 and 2021.
He started with how his government restarted the Edamon-Kochi power highway construction which had come to a standstill during the regime of Oommen Chandy-led UDF government of 2011-16. Pinarayi’s choice of the project was deliberate as he claimed the project had hit a roadblock in Puthuppally. “It was only due to the LDF government that the project which many thought would not go beyond Puthuppally got completed,” he said.
He went on to detail the LDF government’s proactive steps to acquire land for national highway development. He blamed the UDF government preceding his for not taking any steps to acquire land for widening national highways despite an all-party meet agreeing the width should be 45 metre. “In 2016, LDF government convinced the people about the need for national highway development and they cooperated with us,” he said. He said the state had to pay a hefty price – 25% of the price of acquired land – as a result of UDF’s inefficiency.
In a similar fashion, he explained how the government succeeded in implementing the GAIL gas pipeline project allaying people’s fears. He also listed out the LDF government’s achievements in the fields of education, health and social security. Then he went on to explain how the Left government was protecting secularism, without any compromise to communalism. He highlighted the state government’s decision to retain the portions omitted by the NCERT from school textbooks.
He did not mention the name of Oommen Chandy, the former chief minister who represented the constituency for 53 years at a stretch, but invoked the Kannur airport to slam him. “The Kannur airport was inaugurated before the works on its runway were finished. It could be the first such airport in the world. When the LDF government came to power we finished all the works and the airport is functioning well now,” he said. Oommen Chandy had inaugurated the airport at the fag end of his term 2011-16 tenure as CM.
The CM also reiterated the Left front’s criticism that the UDF did not cooperate with the state government’s attempts to get the due central transfers. He repeated the allegation that the Congress had a tacit understanding with the BJP to target the Left.
By the time he was around to wrap up his speech, it was evident that he was not planning to answer the opposition’s allegations against him, including the ‘payment row’ involving his daughter Veena T. Instead he made a generic statement that it is best to ignore those with a ‘destructive mindset’.
During the Thrikkakara bypoll campaign which took place amid the state-wide protests against the K-Rail SilverLine project, he had adopted a similar approach in his first election rally. He kept mum on the allegations against the semi-high speed rail project throughout the speech and when it neared the climax, he said, “K-Rail will come. There need not be any doubt about it.” The punch-line was enough to cheer the Left supporters. This time, there was nothing of that sort.
Pinarayi urged the voters of Puthuppally to elect CPM candidate Jaick C Thomas to make Puthuppally match to the changing Kerala.
He addressed his second election meet at Ayarkunnam later in the day.
