Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy, who is under pressure following the rape and murder of a law student in Perumbavur, has targeted the Opposition Left Democratic Front, arguing that its candidates have hundreds of cases against them.
The chief minister’s statement comes in the backdrop of a series of arguments on social media between him and Opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan regarding cases against each other.
“There are more than 600 cases against the Left Democratic Front candidates including Achuthanandan, which is the biggest proof of their style of politics”, Chandy said on Thursday.
Adding specifics to his argument, Chandy alleged there were seven cases against Achuthanandan and 11 cases against Communist Party of India — Marxist (CPM) politburo member, Pinarayi Vijayan.
Chandy, who is hoping to lead the United Democratic Front to victory in this month’s assembly election, said there were 943 cases against various candidates in the state, and that as many as 685 of them were against LDF candidates. Of that, 617 cases were against CPM candidates, Chandy said.
The chief minister said the Bharatiya Janata Party-Bharatiya Dharma Jana Seva party candidates faced 152 cases.
Interestingly, according to the chief minister’s statistics, the most number of cases — 57 — were faced by Nikesh Kumar, journalist-turned-debutante contestant for the CPM.
