As the Lok Sabha elections draw near, the key Kerala Congress factions have begun designing their campaign strategies around the ailing rubber plantations — the mainstay of central Travancore economy for long.
In a bid to ride this wave of rural distress, the Kerala Congress led by P.J. Joseph has charted out a campaign highlighting the continuing apathy of both the Union and State governments towards the rubber growers. The lapses in fixing the issues relating to the distribution of Rubber Production Incentive Scheme (RPIS), meanwhile, have handed it an additional opportunity to mount a fresh attack on its arch rival, the Kerala Congress (M).
