UDF gears up for LSG polls, subcommittees to meet on Thursday

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The UDF subcommittees formed to prepare for the local body elections will be convened at Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala’s official Cantonment House here on Thursday. Though talks on seat-sharing and candidature will be held only after the elections are announced, an understanding has almost been reached at the ground level.The UDF expects the State Election Commission to hold the local body elections on December 15. It understands that the LDF government has proposed the same date, though it all depends on the trajectory of the pandemic in the state. 

The UDF had appointed various subcommittees to take stock of the situation at the ground level across the state ahead of the elections. UDF convener M M Hassan told TNIE that Thursday’s is a preliminary meeting which is being convened via videoconferencing.“The full-fledged liaison committee meeting of the UDF will be held on October 15 at Cantonment House where the subcommittees’ recommendations will be considered. We are hoping that the pandemic will recede which will enable the commission to hold the local body elections on December 15,” said Hassan.

The Congress’ debacle in the the last civic body polls in 2015 is attributed to two major reasons -- organisational lapses and presence of rebel candidates. The Congress has been holding ward-level meetings to address these issues to a great extent under the aegis of the respective District Congress Committees. The local body elections are going to be a litmus test for the DCC presidents to prove their mettle at the ground level, when there is already a demand among a section of Congress leaders that these committees should be revamped. 

The Congress has already appointed senior leaders to identify issues, if any, in the six corporations -- Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Thrissur, Kannur and Kozhikode. The KPCC leadership has appointed Adoor Prakash, MP, and P C Vishnunath for Thiruvananthapuram, Benny Behanan, MP, for Thrissur, N Peethambara Kurup and C R Jayaprakash for Kollam, V S Vijayaraghavan for Ernakulam, P M Suresh Babu and T Siddique for Kannur and V A Narayanan and K C Rosakutty for Kozhikode.