Ernakulam geared up for Nov 7 by-poll

The more than two-week long hectic campaigning for the Ernakulam Assembly constituency by-poll on Saturday ended with the two prominent fronts -- CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) taking turns in highlighting the development issues.

While LDF has fielded P N Seenulal, UDF has former State Minister Dominic Presentation as its candidate. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fielding Sobha Surendran as its nominee.

In his extensive campaigning, Mr Seenulal highlighted the ill-effects of the free trade agreement with ASEAN countries and urged the voters to cast their vote for LDF to take forward the development activities of the Achuthanandan-led Government in the State. He is also harping on the contention that the Centre was 'indifferent' towareds the interests of the state, though Kerala had six ministers in the Union Cabinet. Mr Achuthanandan, CPI (M) State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and various State ministers campaigned for Mr Seenulal in the constituency.

UDF candidate Dominic Presentation flayed the LDF Government for its misgovernance and inability to complete the Centre-aided projects in a time-bound manner. Union Ministers A K Antony, Vayalar Ravi, Shashi Tharoor and scores of promiment Congress leaders also campaigned.

All the three candidates have promised to take forward the development agenda for the constituency as Ernakulam was slowly becoming the hub of development in the state.

While UDF is hoping to maintain the momentum of the Lok Sabha elections, in which the Front got 16 of the 20 seats, the LDF is desparately trying to reverse the trend in its favour.

-- (UNI) -- 05MS32.xml

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