There was quite a bit of surprise when the United Democratic Front (UDF) chose Shafi Parambil, its Palakkad MLA and former State president of the Youth Congress, as the candidate for the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency on March 8, replacing incumbent MP and senior Congress leader K. Muraleedharan, who had already informally launched his campaign there. Mr. Parambil began his campaign with a road show on March 10 in Vadakara town and is leaving no stone unturned to make his presence felt in the constituency. He speaks to The Hindu on the major campaign issues and his promises.
The victory of UDF candidates from Vadakara since the 2009 Lok Sabha polls is also being perceived as a fallout of the internal fissures within the CPI(M) and the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the past one-and-a-half decades. How confident are you about repeating the feat this time as well?
It is not only about the internal problems within the CPI(M). People with real communist convictions are questioning the erosion of its Leftist values. They are also raising their voice against the anti-democratic character of that party. It is not only an organisational issue, but something with deeper ideological underpinnings also. Ground-level workers are not able to tolerate its autocracy, and there is no change in that situation.
