'Congress backing BJP ploy to silence opponents': Kerala tourism minister before polls

Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran on Tuesday accused the Congress of being hand in glove with BJP, in the latter's "ploy to silence opponents.". The statement from the Communist party leader comes ahead of the local body polls in the state which are to be held in three phases starting from December 8.

'Congress not hesitant to join hands with communal parties': Left

"In Kerala, the Congress party is extending all support to BJP's ploy to silence opponents. Congress somehow wants to come to power and for it, they are not hesitant to join hands with communal parties in local body polls," Surendran said on Tuesday. "After Left government came to power, the impetus was given to welfare schemes and during COVID-19 the welfare pension came as a big relief to people...The opposition, particularly Congress, are disturbed by this and they are creating misunderstanding among people on welfare pensions," he added.

Further hitting out at the BJP, the minister said that "BJP is using central investigation agencies to destabilise the Left government. We have seen how BJP is using Central investigation agencies to target political opponents in other states as well."

Talking about the upcoming local body polls, Surendran said, "In Local Body polls, the Left parties will be able to win big. Seeing that LDF will be able to continue in power due to people's acceptance, the opposition is purposefully creating unwanted controversies." "All controversies are purposefully being created against LDF government and people will understand the false campaign by the opposition," he said. 

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Postal ballot for COVID patients in Kerala civic body polls

COVID-19 patients and those placed under quarantine will not lose their chance to cast votes in the crucial local body polls in Kerala, as the state Election Commission has introduced postal ballot facility for them. A team, consisting of a special polling officer (SPO), a special polling assistant (SPA) and a police officer, would visit each such voter and distribute among them application and declaration forms and postal ballots, State Election Commission (SEC) has said.

Eligible voters infected by COVID-19 and those under quarantine would be considered as ''special voters'' and the distribution of special postal ballots for them would begin on December 2, state Election Commissioner V Bhaskaran said. As of November 29, a total of 24,621 people found a place in the initial list of special voters.

An electorate of over 2.76 crores would exercise their franchise to elect representatives to 941-gram panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 86 municipalities and six municipal corporations in the three-phased local body polls, scheduled on December 8, 10 and 14. The votes would be counted on December 16.

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(With agency inputs)