‘Massive response to signature campaign’

KOCHI:  IN a shift from the traditional form of protests which put the public to immense hardship, the Opposition Congress-led UDF has shifted its focus to a unique style of agitation with people’s participation. The ‘one-crore signature campaign’ against the anti-people policies of Central and state governments has become the highlight of Padayorukkam, the statewide march led by Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala. Though the organisers are not aiming for any record, the response they are receiving for the campaign is above their expectation.

“When we completed our tour in Thrissur district, the number of signatures had crossed 25 lakh. It is learnt the previous record was 20 lakh signatures. We are not focusing on setting a record, but to express the people’s protest against the Central and state governments in a unique way,” said V D Satheesan MLA, convener of Padayorukkam.

The UDF workers from around 23,000 booth committees across the state are collecting one crore signatures from people above 12 years on a 3.5-metre-long and a metre wide banner. Each booth committee has a target of 500 signatures, but many have exceeded the number, according to the leaders. The Mandalam committees stitch together the banners and hand them over to march leader Ramesh Chennithala after recording the name of mandalam committee and the number of signatures they collected during the reception programme.

“In the final stage of the yatra, the state leadership will get the banners stitched together as a single unit, which will come to around 70 km in length,” said KPCC general secretary Sajeev Joseph, who is the head of a fourmember sub-committee of the UDF monitoring the signature campaign. IUML state secretary K S Hamza and KPCC secretaries P A Salim and Pazhakulam Madhu are the other members.