DIC(K) to protect its identity in assembly election: Karunakaran

Kochi, Mar 20: Democratic Indira Congress (DIC-K) leader K Karunakaran today made it clear that his party will not accept any electoral alliance forfeiting its political identity in Kerala.

Inaugurating the party state delegates session here, he said DIC(K) was capabale of going it alone in the state and it had not gone after either the ruling UDF or the opposition LDF for any alliance.

However, both these fronts were wary of DIC(K)'s grasssroot level strength which was the very reason so much of discussions on DIC(K) were taking place in all the fronts, he said.

Mr Karunakaran said his party would not hesitate to field candidates in all the 140 assembly constituencies in the state if the situation warranted. However, it would be willing to help any party which offered to cooperate with it and vice-versa.

Asserting that DIC(K) would be a crucial force and a decisive factor in the coming election, he called upon the party workers to prepare for the electoral battle and assured that its goal was not far away.

Presiding, DIC(K) state President K Muraleedharan said DIC(K) was a principled political party, which will maintain its political morality at all times. He assured the party workers that the party would have more members in the new assembly than the CPI, which had vehemently opposed the former's entry into the LDF, after availing its support in the last Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha by-election.

Mr Muraleedharan said the DIC(K) would finalise its candidates list for the assembly election on Wednesday after its party executive and parliamentary party meetings and there shall be no change in it thereafter, come what may. Stating that the party had no special attachment or aversion towards either the UDF or the LDF in the state, he said his party would not agree for any compromise at the cost of the party symbol and flag.

He said the party had acquired its headquarters building in Thiruvananthapuram out of funds collected during his recent state-wide Nava Kerala Yatra, and all the party workers could be proud of that, he pointed out.

Speaking on the occasion, party parliamentary party leader T M Jacob, MLA, said DIC(K) did not chase any front seeking political alliance in preparation for the assembly elections and asserted that it would be able to prove its strength even if left to fight the election on its own. At the same time, no other party in Kerala would be able to face the election single-handedly by trampling the DIC (K), he asserted.

The political resolution, moved by parliamentary party member and former minister M P Gangadharan at the end of a nearly two-hour long session, asserted that the question of surrendering DIC(K)'s flag and symbol, which established its identity, for the sake of any electoral alliance was out of question.

It also authorised the party to field candidates in all the 140 constituencies if such a situation arose in the state, obviously referring to the final outcome of the on-going UDF-DIC(K) parleys on seat sharing.

The party would come out with a farmer-friendly, development oriented and corruption-free election manifesto that would seek to end suicides in the agrarian sector, he added.

UNI