Family meetings do not enthuse Congress cadre

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The major political parties in the state are vying with each other to energise the cadres through family meetings and fund-raising campaigns. The Congress started the family meetings on June 13 coinciding with the birth centenary celebrations of former prime minister Indira Gandhi. It was formally inaugurated by senior leader A.K. Antony in his ward at Jagathy here. However, a section of Congress leaders has dubbed the family meetings as a damp squib because they have been converted into public meetings which have failed to energise the workers.   

Former chief minister Oommen Chandy kicked off the second round of meetings from Idukki district. While KPCC president M. M. Hassan launched his month- long trip across the state  from July 1 onwards, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala’s yatra started from Malappuram on Saturday. A KPCC general secretary told DC that the workers of booth committees were not enthusiastic about the meetings.  

“All family members, including women and children, are supposed to attend the family meetings. But these are turning out to be public meetings defeating their aims,”  he said. However, Congress leaders claimed that the meetings attended by Mr Oommen Chandy witnessed a sizable number of party workers in Pathanamthitta, Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad and Kollam. The CPM  launched its house visits  on July 1 to interact directly with people to educate them on the  LDF government’s policies.

CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan led the visits in various localities in the state capital. He interacted with people, distributed pamphlets and booklets explaining the government’s major development programmes and the party’s stand on state and national issues. In the first phase, Mr Kodiyeri and his team of party workers visited 50, 000 households. Both the Congress and the CPM want to  counter the divisive and communal campaign of the RSS and BJP. The  Sangh Parivar has been trying to cash in on the violence in the state by blaming the CPM for the political killings.