THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, January 3: The Congress-led United Democratic Front exhibited its new-found unity in public with its architect and former Chief Minister K Karunakaran on Friday calling for maximum contribution from each partner towards the success of its candidates in the coming Lok Sabha elections.The venue of the unity show was the well-attended south zone convention of the front, which was inaugurated by Karunakaran at Karthika Thirunal Theatre here effectively launching the UDF campaign for the coming elections. This was the first of the three such zonal conventions with one each at Kochi and Kozhikode to follow in the coming days.
Karunakaran was full of confidence when he predicted that the Congress would emerge as the single largest party in the next Lok Sabha. He asked the leaders to do every thing possible to boost the morale of the grassroots workers the lack of which, he said, had led to the defeat of the UDF candidate in the byelction in Ernakulam Lok Sabha constituency.
The call by
Karunakaran, who was seen in the company of other UDF leaders in public after a long time, for a united show had its echoes in all speeches that followed. Leader after leader pledged the resolve to strengthen the front and concentrate in sending more UDF candidates than the last time to the Lok Sabha.
Karunakaran also pointed out the fillip Congress party received after Sonia Gandhi's decision to campaign for the party. ``Congress suffered in the last elections because nobody from the Nehru family campaigned for the party,'' he said. The senior Congress leader added that his party would go ``to any extent'' to see that BJP did not capture power at the Centre.
Opposition leader A K Antony asked the United Front constituents to join the Congress in its fight for safeguarding secular principles. ``Secularism is the biggest issue in the coming elections,'' he said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
