Kochi:
The general secretary of CPM, Prakash Karat, has said though Kerala Chief Minister V S Achutanandan was leading the Left Democratic Front (LDF) campaign in the state, a decision on chief ministership would be taken only after the UDF was voted to power.
The party had followed a similar process in the 2006 Assembly polls, Karat told at a meet-the-press programme organised by Ernakulam Press club.
When asked about various allegations against former CPM Kannur district Secretary P Sasi, Karat said, "There is no secrecy. There is a mechanism the party follows on receiving complaints of sexual harassment... you may like to make it a public issue... we have a mechanism to probe it. That process is going on. It is not possible to complete it before the elections. Our party takes such complaints very seriously," he said.
The Assembly elections in West Bengal and Kerala are an opportunity to present the record of the two Left Front governments and to show how different they are from the Congress-led UPA and other Congress and BJP governments in states, he said.
Pointing out that the LDF was successful in expanding the Public Distribution System (PDS) in the state and extending the Rs 2 per kg rice to BPL and APL families, he said the UDF manifesto promises rice to only the BPL families.
On the apex court's decision to stay the state government's plans to enlarge the beneficiaries of Rs 2 a kg rice scheme, he said the government was only implementing the extended scheme and the same was announced before the model code of conduct came into force.
Asked about the Supreme Court dismissing as withdrawn a petition by CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan's petition challenging Kerala Governor's nod to CBI to launch prosecution proceedings against him (Vijayan) in the SNC Lavalin case, Karat said it would have been better if the court had given its judgement on a constitutional point of law.