People's Democracy(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) |
Vol. XXXV
No.
16 April 17, 2011 |
Big Guns of
UDF Fail to Draw Crowds
N
CONGRESS
president Sonia
Gandhi’s campaign in Kerala ended up as a low key affair. Low turn out
of
Congress workers and little enthusiasm they showed put the Congress
leadership
in deep worry. Taking serious note of this poor show, the Congress high
command
has sought an explanation from the
Kerala PCC. As if this was not enough of an embarrassment, Sonia Gandhi
at the
end of her speech in the public meeting Harippad in Alappuzha district,
in a
disastrous slip of tongue, appealed to the voters to cast their votes
in favour
of the LDF! She used the word LDF two times instead of UDF. She also
said that
the centre would introduce better projects to change Kerala if ‘LDF’ is
voted
to power.
Even though
Congress misused
the money power, it was not be able to mobilise the workers in
respectable
numbers. She had addressed the meetings at Harippad, Thrissur and
Sonia
Gandhi's Thrissur
meeting was the least attended one. The organisers claimed that 25
thousand
people would attend the public meeting. Their endeavour to mobilise the
people
by hired vehicles from 13 assembly constituencies ended in mobilising
only less
than ten thousand people in the famous Thekkinkad ground adjacent to
the historical
Vadakkunnatha temple in Thrissur, the city considered to be a strong
hold of
Congress. The people sat passively when Sonia reached. People protested
when
they were denied the drinking water, due the the stringent security
measures of
the SPG.
PM AND RAHUL
EMBARRASSED
After
Congress president
Sonia Gandhi's flop meetings in Kerala, it was the turn of prime
minister
Manmohan Singh and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi to be acutely
embarrassed. Their public meetings were very poorly attended leading to
serious
concerns in the UDF camp.
Prime
minister had an UDF
election campaign meeting today in Kottayam, a city considered to be a
stronghold of Congress. The organisers arranged 2000 chairs in Nehru
stadium
but half of the chairs were unoccupied. (see photo) The organisers in
desperation made announcements from the dais asking workers standing
around the
dais to go and occupy the chairs. So panicked they were that they
announced in
the mike “If we do not fill the chairs, Deshabhimani will
carry pictures
of empty chairs. Please come and sit”. The organisers also requested
the
security personnel to let the people in without any frisking, a request
that
was of course not heeded by the SPG.
Rahul Gandhi
addressed
meetings in