Oommen Chandy facing fallout of placating communal forces: VS

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Mounting a scathing attack on the Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala, CPI(M) veteran and opposition leader V S Achuthanandan today said Chief Minister OommenChandy was suffering the consequences of placating communal and casteist forces for power.

"Chandy has been placating communal and casteist forces of different kinds in an opportunistic manner to secure and retain power. The same forces that once supported him are now turning against him," Achuthanandan said while talking on "contemporary Kerala politics and development" organised by the Press Club here.

The Marxist veteran was referring to intensification of attack on the Chandy Government by influential community outfits like Nair Service Society and Sree Narayana Dharma Pariplalana Yogam.

To a question, Achuthanandan said he agreed with the view that these organisations, founded as part of social reform movement last century, were crossing limits by meddling in politics.

Referring to the strife in the state unit of the Congress over the issue of giving ministerial berth to KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala, Achuthanandan said the UDF gave the image of a "house haunted by death."

He said on the development front also the government had been a total failure as none of the major pending projects had made any progress in the last two years.

On the ongoing row over the lease of Cochin Port Trust land to NRI businessman Yusuf Ali, Achuthanandan said he stuck to his view that there was noting irregular about it though some of his party colleagues held a different view on the matter.