With just three weeks left for the poll date, the Congress-led United Democratic Front has deputed two doughty women to ‘expose’ Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan’s ‘tall claims’ of being the protector of women.
While the Left Democratic Front is racing ahead of the UDF in the poll campaign, the Congress has sprung the season’s surprise by flaunting its latest find, Sindhu Joy, till the other day a firebrand youth leader of the CPI(M).
She and Ms Lathika Subhash, the former Kottyam district panchayat president, who takes on the Chief Minister in Malampuzha, would lead the UDF’s strident campaign to counter the latter’s morality crusades.
Mr Achuthanandan set the tone for the campaign by seeking one more term to jail all sexual offenders, but it’s now left to the two women to question his alleged inaction in the last five years.
And Ms Subhash started off symbolically by taking `101 from the father of Shari S. Nair, the tragic sex racket victim of Kiliroor, as her election deposit.
One of the main poll planks of the UDF would be the question, “Where are the VIPs and others who brutalised Shari?”
The answer would have to come from Mr Achuthanandan because he had sought the mandate in the 2006 elections to prosecute them.
Likewise, Ms Sindhu has also lashed out at Mr Achuthanandan wondering how he could claim to be the protector of women in the state when he could not give justice to her within the party.
The UDF managers are hoping that their ‘VS-centric’ poll campaign using women would pay dividends in the polls.
The UDF had to come up with this ‘off-the-cuff’ idea since the LDF has turned out to be as a well-knit fighting brigade in the poll front while the opposition coalition’s seat allocation still remains a thorn in its flesh.
The Congress is still trying to sort out issues with the Socialist Janata (Democratic) and the CMP.
On the other side, the uncertainty over Mr Achuthananadan’s status after the elections, whether he would be the leader of the CPM legislature party, confuses his supporters.
The CPI(M)’s in-house problems are also still unresolved.