Kerala UDF using TP murder to pin down CPM

NEYYATINKARA: The synergy is palpable in the election committee office of UDF candidate R Selvaraj. The former CPM workers who quit the party along with him and Congress activists are busy charting out the election campaign schedule and finalising the areas to be covered under the family meet for the day. On Tuesday, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was steering the family meet in Athiyanoor panchayat and Neyyatinkara municipality while Power Minister Aryadan Mohammed did the job in the Pozhiyoor region. If the campaign of the UDF started on a bleak note over the fifth minister row and many Congress workers keeping away from backing a former CPM MLA as candidate, the fortunes of UDF changed dramatically after the incident on the fateful night of May 4.  Now, the main campaign weapon of the UDF against the LDF is the gruesome murder of RMP leader T P Chandrashekaran and the political violence of the CPM. “Yes, there were hiccups during the beginning of the campaign. But now everyone is working to ensure the victory of Selvaraj. Those Congress workers who kept away from the campaign are now back actively campaigning for Selvaraj. The political violence unleashed by CPM can never be justified and the TP murder has changed everything in Neyyatinkara and united the UDF workers in the region,’’ said a poll manager of UDF. With the TP murder being the pivotal issue around which the UDF campaign revolves, the fifth minister row and the track record of Selvaraj in the development activity  carried out in Neyyattinkara have been put on the back-burner. Selvaraj claims that the rising faction feud within the CPM following the murder of T P Chandrashekaran is a helping factor for him in the Neyyatinkara by-election.“When I quit the CPM, I made it clear that there was threat to my life and to my family from the CPM. Now, with the murder of T P Chandrashekaran, my stand has been vindicated. The CPM workers in the region including some of the local committee members have realised this fact and are now supporting me. Also those supporting VS in the party are keeping away from campaigning for the LDF candidate,’’ he said. However, Selvaraj told ‘Express’ that the threat to his life was not from the so- called ‘Kannur lobby’ in the CPM. ‘’I don’t think that the threat to my life is from the party’s Kannur lobby but from the leaders of this region itself,’’ he said.