IT has been a deadly start for polls to Kerala Assembly! With Election Commission declaring April 13, as polling day, five Muslim League workers were killed and three of them are in serious condition at a hospital, when the steel bombs they were making, exploded on 26th night at Narikkateri in Nadapuram area of Kozhikode district.
For almost two decades, Nadapuram is a conflict zone between CPM and Muslim League, just like the CPM-RSS rivalry in Kannur district. The Hindus of Nadapuram are lined up behind the CPM and the majority Muslims are behind Muslim League.
A few years back, CPM had laid siege on a small Muslim pocket, not allowing people to move out of their houses for almost a week. In Hindu pockets, they didn’t allow Muslims to vote.
In September 2010, five CPM men lost their hands when the bombs, they were making exploded. Again in November, two CPM men, including son of a senior CITU leader Balakrishnan lost their life, when blasted by their own bombs.
The dead and grievously injured Muslim League men are Riyaz, Shameer, Rafeek, Sabeer, Shabeer, Faizal, Shabeer and Ajinas. They are professional trouble and bomb makers and had several criminal cases registered against them. On 25th, they had attacked 13 houses of CPM men, including that of Pradeep Kumar CPM MLA, with bombs.
Despite all this, the Muslim League leader Mayin Haji, who was the kingpin behind butchering of eight Hindu fishermen in Marad in 2003, has the audacity to say that the dead are not Muslim League men.
With the arrest of Madhani and several jehadi NDF cadres in NIA custody due to various terrorist acts, extremist Islamic youth are going back to Muslim League for political protection. They are being used for violence against RSS and CPM.
Chief Minister VS Atchudanandan has accused the Congress-Muslim League dominated UDF of instigating violence to torpedo polls. He said five kgs of deadly explosives, raw materials for making steel bombs, huge cache of sim cards, currency etc. have been raided from several abandoned houses. He also accused UDF of making bombs in isolated hillocks of various places in Kozhikode and Malappuram.
Apart from this, the slugging match between CPM and Congress has started in right earnest. A belligerent CPM has been able to score brownie points over UDF since Muslim League leader PK Kunhalikutty is embroiled in a sex scandal and Balakrishnan Pillai is in jail, convicted of corruption by Supreme Court. The CPM is also threatening, including Congress leader and UDF CM candidate Oommen Chandy in the multi-crore palmolein import scam case.
A forced to the wall UDF has hit back, listing various corruption charges against the CM’s son VS Arun Kumar, with the sole intention of denting VS’s clean image.
They have accused the CM’s son of links with the lottery mafia, getting seven lakhs from the sandal wood mafia and demanding Rs 75 crore from the electronic giant of Kerala KPP Nambiar, who wanted to start a Rs 1500 crore power plant in Kannur. They have also accused him of Rs 15 crore corruption when he was MD of a state owned Coir PSU and submitting false documents for PhD registration.
These issues were raised in the Assembly and UDF has given representation to Governor RS Gavai seeking probe.
VS has hit back rubbishing these false accusations and Arun Kumar has filed legal suits against several UDF leaders. The CM has challenged the UDF by saying that he is writing to PM asking for CBI probe into the lottery mafia. He said the lottery lobby led by Congress MP Manikumar Subba of North East and Sandeago Martin of Tamil Nadu is swindling Rs 15,00,000 crore from poor Indians in a year and the annual turnover of the illicit lottery mafia in Kerala in Rs 80,000 crore. He has also challenged that he will write for including his son in the case, and if he is involved, he should also be punished.
Sandeago Martin is also a liquor baron and film maker with close ties with the DMK-Congress Alliance in Tamil Nadu VS by writing to PM, for CBI probe into lottery mafia is striking two birds with one stone. He is targeting Congress and Pinarayi Vijayan, Finance Minister Thomas Issac gang up who are enormously financed by the lottery mafia. Finally to counter VS hogging the lime-light, UDF has filed petition in Kerala HC demanding CBI probe and given the charges against Arunkumar in writing to his CM father VS.
With a survey commissioned by Rahul Gandhi, predicting a tough battle for Congress-led UDF in Assembly polls, the CPM which has re-kindled its dead hope’s of victory has no other option but to fight the polls under VS due to his clean image. Pinarayi dominated CPM wanted to give a steel hand shake to VS but he is plotting to put several Pinarayi loyalists like Thomas Issac and Congress leaders behind steel bars in prison.
