Date:12/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/12/stories/2006051224080300.htm

Kerala - Kochi

LDF camp erupts in joy

Staff Reporter

CELEBRATION TIME: Workers of the LDF carry Dinesh Mani, who won from Palluruthy constituency defeating Fisheries Minister Dominic Presentation, in a victory procession in the city on Thursday. - Photo: H. Vibhu

KOCHI: Jubilation and deep despair. It was the mood that prevailed in the LDF and the UDF camps as the poll results started pouring in.

As the reality began to sink in, the Left camp and the workers erupted in joy and carried their victorious leaders on shoulders celebrating the unprecedented victory of the front in the district. Carrying huge red flags and cut-out of their elected representatives, the front workers danced to the tunes of revolutionary songs on the streets

At the same time, a pall of gloom descended over the UDF camp and it took some time for the UDF leaders and campaign managers to come to terms with the reality that the front had been trounced in its bastion.

The only solace of the Congress workers was the victory of three of its sitting MLAs - K.V. Thomas, V.D. Satheesan and K. Babu.

The fact that Mr. Thomas and Mr. Babu managed to scrape through with considerably reduced margins did not reduce the enthusiasm of the party workers who greeted the leaders at the DCC office.

After garlanding them and sharing the happiness of the consolation victories, the party workers took both Mr. Thomas and Mr. Babu for a thanksgiving procession in their respective constituencies.

More than despair, it was an everything-lost sentiment that prevailed among the DIC(K) leaders of the district. "People have out rightly rejected the political stand of the party," responded N. Venugopal, the general secretary of the party, in a sad tone.

"The party candidates have lost with huge margins, which indicate that people, refused to accept the party in any terms. People rejected the political dilly-dallying stand of the party in terms of joining the political fronts. Moreover, the DIC(K) and Congress workers were not united at the grassroots, which resulted in the poll debacle of this magnitude," he said.

A buoyant K. Chandran Pillai, MP, felt that the landslide victory of the LDF, in the hub of industrialisation, disproved the UDF's campaign that the Left was anti-development in its policies. The UDF campaign singling out V.S. Achuthanandan and accusing him of being anti-minority and anti-development was unrealistic and it backfired, he said.

"Unexpected," reacted DCC president K.P. Dhanapalan. He blamed it on the negative impact of the alliance with the DIC(K), which resulted in the crushing defeat of the UDF in its citadel.

Though the PDP and the Jamaat-e-Islami did not have much mass base in the district, the intense propaganda of these organisations against the UDF had a decisive impact on the Muslim electorate.

The issues in the Christian community, especially those related to a police action in a church in Aluva, were effectively used by the LDF to turn voters, especially women, against the UDF in the constituencies in the eastern belt of the district, he said.