LDF doesn't want BJP votes: Nayanar

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 30. The Chief Minister, Mr. E. K. Nayanar, said here on Monday that the LDF did not want BJP votes.

"Let them cast their votes anywhere," the Chief Minister said while talking to presspersons after a Cabinet meeting on Monday.

Mr. Nayanar said that secular Kerala would defeat the BJP's moves to open an account in Kerala. The results would show that the BJP has no relevance in Kerala.

He asked whether the Congress leader, Mr. K. Karunakaran, and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. A. K. Antony, were willing to declare that they would not allow the BJP to win a seat in Kerala.

He maintained that the BJP president, Mr. Jana Krishnamoorthy, had said that the BJP was having a friendly contest with the Congress in Kerala. Mr. Karunakaran and Mr. Antony were not denying that. They had said they would accept BJP votes and the BJP president had welcomed that stand. On the other hand, the CPI(M) was attacking the BJP.

The BJP, he recalled, had won only 5.48 per cent of votes in the 1996 Assembly elections. In the Lok Sabha elections in 1998 and 199, its votes share was 7.96 per cent and 8.1 per cent, respectively. It was not going to retain this votes share in the coming elections.

The Central Government, he noted, had been adopting policies that were harmful to the agricultural and industrial sectors of Kerala. As a result, the prices of cash crops had plummeted. The public distribution system was being dismantled. The policies, now being implemented by the BJP, were the ones devised by the Congress when in power.

The BJP, he continued, was willing to trade its votes with any party. It had made an open declaration in this regard.

He said that the poll surveys being published by newspapers were intended to mislead the public. They showed false material predicting the defeat of the LDF. During the Lok Sabha elections, one such survey had predicted four seats for the LDF. It had actually won 10.

Mr. Nayanar said that there was nothing wrong with the State's request for additional Central forces from the northern States. The Central forces arriving in the State were not enough to post even two policemen per booth. As elections were taking place in Tamil Nadu also, additional forces could not be obtained from that State. There was also limit in the number of policemen available from neighbouring States. Hence, the request for police from northern States.

Cabinet decisions

The Cabinet decided to set up a core group to prepare an action plan for manufacture of base isolation bearings from natural rubber in collaboration with Malaysia. The bearings could be used for building earthquake-proof houses.

The Chief Minister said that today's meeting was the last of this Cabinet. However, the Cabinet had authorised the convening of another meeting, if a necessity arose.

He said that the Principal of the Kozhikode Medical College, Mr. C. Sadasivan Pillai, will be promoted as Director of Medical Education. The term of Mr. Justice K. P. Balanarayana Marar as Executive Director of Legal Services would be extended by one year. He takes the place of Ms. M. S. Subhadra who retired from service.

He said that the Cabinet had permitted the Kerala Ceramics to treat the bonus paid between 1996 and 1999 to its employees, who were not eligible for bonus under the new wage agreement entered into by the management and workers recently with retrospective effect, as advance.

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Section  : State Elections
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