ENTHUSIASM in the campaign process in Kerala has mounted up as the CPI(M)’s national leaders have reached the state. While the temperature outside has already reached close to 40 degree Celsius, it has failed to dampen the enthusiasm of the CPI(M) cadre. The BJP and the AAP too are trying their luck in the Lok Sabha elections in the state, along with the main contestants, viz the LDF and the UDF. All the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala, where there is direct fight between the UDF and the LDF, are likely to witness a fiery LDF campaign with the presence of all-India leaders of the CPI(M) and CPI. On March 26, public meetings addressed by CPI(M) Polit Bureau member S Ramachandran Pillai and opposition leader V S Achuthanandan attracted large numbers of the people. SRP addressed various meetings in Kottayam constituency where JDS leader Mathew T Thomas is contesting while VS addressed the people in Thiruvananthapuram constituency where CPI candidate Dr Benet Abraham is in the fray. On the same day, CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan launched the website of A Sampath, LDF candidate in Attingal constituency.  CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, its Polit Bureau members Sitaram Yechuri,  Brinda Karat and A K Padmanabhan, CPI leaders A B Bardhan, Sudhakara Reddy and D Raja will attend various LDF programmes all over the state in the coming days. CMP LEAVES UDF, TO SUPPORT LDF THE Communist Marxist Party (CMP), a constituent of Congress led United Democratic Front (UDF) for the last 25 years, has left the front and decided to support the Left Democratic Front (LDF). On March 22, 2014, CMP acting secretary K R Aranvindakshan and M K Kannan informed the media that the central council of the party had decided to extend unconditional support to the LDF, adding that the Polit Bureau of the CMP would soon hold discussions with LDF leaders.  CMP leaders also said a special convention of the party would be held in Thrissur on March 30 to ratify the decision of the central council. They added that the party chief, M V Raghavan, was aware of this decision, and accused that leader like C P John and C A Ajeer were trying to split the party. Aranvindakshan and Kannan also informed that the party’s representatives in the Cashew Development Corporation and Cooperative Welfare Board would quit their positions. However, its representatives in the local bodies would not resign, they said. On the other hand, C P John, leader of the rival fraction, said the party would remain in the UDF. One notes that M V Raghavan, a former leader of the CPI(M), formed the CMP after his expulsion from the party in 1987. Welcoming the decision of the CMP, CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said the LDF would cooperate with the CMP, and that LDF leaders were in full knowledge of the developments when the decision was taken. He was talking to media after the inaugural programme of AKG Memorial Building at Guruvayoor in Thrissur district. Now the CMP will be a part of all programmes of the LDF in connection with the Lok Sabha election campaign. Pinarayi said the UDF is now a wrecked ship and that many parties like the JSS led by Gauriamma and the CMP had left it.  LDF CANDIDATES FILE NOMINATIONS ALL the 20 candidates of the Left Democratic Front in Kerala have filed their nomination papers for the Lok Sabha elections 2014. These include CPI(M) Polit Bureau member M A Baby (Kollam), Central Committee member P Karunakaran (Kasargode), Central Committee member P K Sreemathi (Kannur), state committee member P K Sainaba (Malappuram), state committee member M B Rajesh (Palakkad), state committee member P K Biju (Alathur), state committee member C B Chandrababu (Alappuzha), and CPI(M) supported independent candidates Peelopos Thomas (Pathanamthitta), Christy Fernades (Eranakulam) Innocent (Chalakkudi) and V Abdul Rahman (Ponnani). All of them filed their nominations on Thursday, March 20. Of these, M B Rajesh and P K Biju are sitting MPs. The CPI’s candidates, namely Sathyan Mokeri (Wayanad), Chengara Surendran (Mavelikkara) and Bennet Abraham (Thiruvananthapuram), and JDS candidate Mathew T Thomas (Kottayam) also have filed nominations on the same day. Joyce George, the LDF supported independent candidate in Idukki constituency, filed his nomination papers on Friday, March 21. As reported in these columns, CPI(M) candidates A Vijayaraghavan (Kozhikode),  A Sampath (Attingal) and A N Shamseer (Vadakara) as well as CPI candidate C N Jayadevan (Thrissur) had filed nominations earlier, on March 19.  CONGRESSMEN TORTURE TEASHOP EMPLOYEE TO DEATH A teashop employee who was manhandled by Congressmen in front of Shashi Tharoor, a central minister and UDF candidate for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency, died in a city hospital on Thursday, March 20. It was when Tharoor was on his campaign trail that a group of Congressmen had abused and manhandled Muhammed Yusuf (55), a resident of Poonthura SM Lock Junction, in the very presence of the minister. The chain of events is as below. A commotion occurred when Yusuf expressed his reluctance to pose for a photograph with Tharoor. While Congressmen insisted that he hang a photograph of Tharoor on a wall of the teashop, Yusuf replied that any such photo would repel a number of customers away from the shop. But his reply made the Congressmen violent, and they abused and manhandled him, while Tharoor stood a mute spectator to this entire episode. The incident occurred quite close to a police station. The owner of the teashop was not present there at the time. The Congress workers also threatened to force the teashop to close down. Yusuf returned home soon after this torture, and began to feel mental agony and uneasiness. Very soon, he vomited blood and succumbed to death when he was being taken to a hospital where the death was confirmed. Yusuf has left behind two children. His wife had passed away years back.