Fears of a possible dent in the minority vote-bank have created differences of opinion in a Kerala legislators’ panel over its plan to visit Gujarat next week to study the waste management initiatives in Surat, undertaken by the Government of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP-led NDA.
According to sources in Kerala’s Congress-led ruling UDF, the State legislature’s Subject Committee on local Administration, Rural Development and Housing which had planned the visit of the all-party team of 11 MlAs including Ministers to Surat on December 12, is reviewing the decision because of obvious reasons.
Sources said the delegation, including MlAs from both the ruling and Opposition sides, was to visit six States including Gujarat to study the functioning of the solid waste management systems there but the plan might be changed to exclude Surat from the itinerary as both sides feel that a visit to the Modi-ruled State at this juncture might have a negative impact in the lok Sabha polls.
As per the schedule, the legislators’ team for the Gujarat visit was to include members from the Congress, its allies Muslim league and Kerala Congress (M), CPI(M), CPI and National Secular Conference. The six-state visit was to start on December 8 and the team was to reach Surat on December 12 to visit the waste management facilities and hold talks with Gujarat authorities.
“It may prove counter-productive for the UDF to permit a visit by its MlAs to Gujarat to learn about the development initiatives there especially when the national Congress leadership has questioned that state’s development claims and the Kerala Chief Minister has said that the State has nothing to learn from Gujarat,” said a senior leader of the Muslim league.
State Urban Affairs Minister Manjalamkuzhy Ali of the Muslim league, one of the members of the delegation, has already decided to exclude Surat from his itinerary while the other Ministers in the team are yet to take a decision. MlAs of the Opposition lDF are also likely to avoid visiting Gujarat during the tour, according to sources.
However, sources say that a section in the Assembly Subject Committee is of the opinion that there is nothing wrong for a state’s legislative body to study the progress on a particular front in another state irrespective of who rules there. “This is not a political visit to worry about Modi or BJP but it is a normal and routine legislative initiative,” said a Kerala Congress (M) leader.
As per schedule, the other members of the delegation were to be Finance Minister KM Mani (KC-M), Rural Development Minister KC Joseph (Congress), Panchayats Minister MK Muneer (Muslim league) and one MlA each of the Congress, CPI and National Secular Conference and three legislators of the CPI(M). Muneer, however, is unlikely to be part of the delegation.
Sources in the CPI(M) said that its MlAs would most probably limit their visit to the other five States — by excluding Gujarat — which were Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. “We don’t think any party on the ruling or Opposition side can afford a controversy with an official delegation’s visit to Gujarat,” said a State committee member of the CPI(M).
Meanwhile, a report from Ahmedabad said that a seven-MlA team of the Kerala Assembly’s Revenue Subject Committee had reached there on Tuesday night to study the progresses Gujarat had achieved in land surveys suing remote-sensing technology and satellite mapping. The team had reached Gujarat after visiting Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.