It is feared that the Left Front government is tapping the phones of the chief of influential Nair community organisation, Nair Service Society, G Sukumaran Nair, in a bid to watch his moves in the elections. According to sources, a BJP candidate who called up Sukumaran Nair, NSS chief, on the landline phone, did not get any response. So he rushed to the NSS headquarters to enquire whether everything was alright. After the BJP leader left, senior Congress leader and Rahul Gandhi aide PC Venugopal also visited the NSS headquarters at Changanassery. Venugopal also had a similar experience.
The state government has foisted more than 240 false cases against BJP’s candidate for Pathanamthitta seat K Surendran. Even before the election dates were announced, the government slapped several false cases (one among them was a case related to the suicide of an auto driver called Surendran) against Surendran. The BJP leader who suffers from diabetes was tortured and manhandled in police custody. He was not allowed to take medicines or food on time and a policeman who purchased tea for him was transferred. Surendran is pitted against a staunch anti-Sabarimala activist and Vijayan protégé Veena George. She belongs to the Orthodox Christian community. MLA PC George has alleged that Pinarayi had fielded Veena George to destroy Sabarimala.
Unfortunately for Vijayan, Surendran had emerged as the face of Sabarimala protests. Pathanamthitta is one of the constituencies where the BJP hopes to bag in this election. BJP fears that since the party’s prospects are good, the CPI(M) might shift its votes to Congress candidate Anto Antony, a Roman Catholic.
In many places, the CPI(M) has unleashed violence in a bid to intimidate political rivals. Incensed by chanting of Sarana mantra through loudspeakers in a temple in Thiruvananthapuram during an election campaign meeting, Vijayan ordered his partymen to remove the power connection to the temple till his meeting was over. The local Hindus are planning to approach the Election Commission for this goondaism. In earlier occasions when azan was played out from mosques, Vijayan respectfully stopped his speech till it was completed.
CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan insulted Swami Chidananda Puri as a saffron-clad RSS man. The reasons are simple. The Swami has been leading the Sabarimala campaign since its beginning last year. He does not mince his words while criticising the Left Front regime for its anti-Hindu propaganda and actions.
Similarly, a group of Congress workers stopped the campaign vehicle carrying Defence Minister Nirmala Seetharaman and BJP candidate Kummanam Rajasekharan from entering an area.
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