Kerala Assembly Polls: Why deep-sea trawler row is a concern for LDF

An ongoing row in Kerala over the state government’s deal with a US-based firm for building deep-sea fishing trawlers has seemingly caused a dent in the ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF)'s hopes to return to power in the state.

Kerala has a long coastline and up to 50 of the 140 Assembly constituencies in the state are either fully or partially connected to the coastal belt. The fishermen community dominates the demographic in the coastal areas of the state, practicing different religions. They were even considered to be trendsetters in most of these constituencies. Of these seats, 35 were won by the LDF in the 2016 polls.

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The Kerala government came into trouble upon initiating a deal with a US firm for manufacturing 400 deep-sea trawlers allegedly with the intention of exploiting the deep-sea marine resources. This row seems to have created concerns among the fishermen that the move was against their interests. The Kerala government scrapped the controversial memorandums of understanding after opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala of the Congress exposed it. However, LDF leaders including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Fisheries Minister Mercykutty Amma and Industries Minister E P Jayarajan had initially denied the allegations. This sent a message to the fishermen community that the government tried to betray them by trying to hush up the matter.

Fr Eugine Pereira of the Thiruvananthapuram Latin Catholic Archdiocese that represents a large section of the fishermen community in the state, had strongly flayed the LDF government over the issue and even said that this may affect the party in the upcoming elections.

Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) is using this opportunity to its benefit. Rahul Gandhi recently interacted with the fishermen on the issue and the UDF organised a series of demonstrations for the same in the coastal areas. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala staged a day-long stir in the coastal area with UDF carrying out two marches in the coastal areas, one in the south and the other in the north. The UDF, especially Chennithala, is challenging the government to make public all files related to the project.

Read | Fishing 'hartal' hits coastal belt in Kerala

Meanwhile, the LDF is trying to counter the allegations by raising suspicions of a political ploy. The party stated that Kerala Shipping and Inland Navigation Corporation managing director N Prasanth, who inked the MoU for trawler manufacturing with EMCC International India, a subsidiary of US-based EMCC Global Consortium, earlier served as Chennithala’s private secretary while he was home minister in the previous UDF government.

However, even as the government ordered an inquiry against Prasanth, no action was taken against him so far.