Victory of extremist forces: Rajagopal

Neyattinkara: In Neyattinkara it is the victory of extremist forces, said O Rajagopal. Caste and religion have played a major role behind the UDF candidate in Neyattinkara. The victory cannot be taken with pride politically. He also alleged that the govt had misused authority to win the elections.

VS blames M M Mani incident for poll debacle

Reacting to the poll debacle the CPI-M faced in the by-election for Neyyattinkara constituency, Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan today put the blame on the controversial speech of former party Idukki secretary M M Mani who, in a public meeting, confessed about party’s history of killing off its political foes.

“M M Mani’s speech in Idukki might have affected the election results. Rather, the UDF succeeded in effectively utilizing the murder of RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan,” Achuthananadan said.

He said that the victory of Selvaraj was against the democratic values as he was the one who imposed the election on people resigning from CPI-M to join the Congress for personal gains.

Mentioning the precedence religious and communal sects enjoyed in the election, Achuthnandan said that it was a sign of communal powers gripping in the political life of the state.

By-poll outcome a verdict against violence: Thangal

 Indian Union Muslim League supremo Panakkad Syid Hyderali Shihab Thangal on Friday said the victory of the UDF in the Neyyattinkara assembly bypoll was a verdict against “politics of violence practised by CPI(M).”

“This outcome is a loud message from the electorate that violence has no place in a democracy. Tolerance, mutual respect and love are the basic components of democracy”, Thangal, who leads the second largest constituent of the ruling UDF, said in a statement here.

The IUML leader said he hoped that the CPIM) would take the result as an opportunity to introspect and shed violence in the coming days.