Date:13/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/13/stories/2009011353950400.htm

Kerala

‘UDF expansion not on the cards’

Staff Reporter

Thrissur: Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi has said that expansion of the United Democratic Front is not on the cards.

Replying to a question posed at a press conference here on Monday, he said that induction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) into the UDF was out of the question. “The UDF does not need the NCP at all,” he added.

He said he would contest the Lok Sabha elections from any seat offered by the party high command. “The party will field candidates only in seats where victory is sure.”

He condemned Israel’s Gaza offensive. “The CPI(M) is communalising the issue and trying to make political mileage.” Asked to comment on the reported stand of the CPI(M) that it would not support the Congress in future, Mr. Ravi said that it must be a State-specific election strategy drawn up by the Left.

“Whenever the CPI(M) did not support the Congress at the Centre, it had faced disadvantages,” he added.