Antony said this to the media at the state party headquarters during his first visit to the capital in almost a year's time.

 

"Don't be misled and deceived by the now smooth talks of Vijayan. His ministers are now on an apology spree. This is just done to cross the bridge (Assembly polls) and if by any chance he manages to cross it, then it would spell disaster for Kerala. Kerala will be finished if he gets a second term," said Antony.

 

Kerala goes to the polls on April 6 to elect 140 legislators, and Vijayan by now is reaching out to all with a smiling face and the tough demeanour that he often used to display is now no longer seen.

 

"The past five years of Vijayan can be best described as a mixture of arrogance, stubbornness and total corruption. I doubt if people will forget how Sabarimala temple issue was raked up and the hallowed tradition and culture was destroyed. Will the people forget the way the CPI-M goons brutally murdered three youths in North Kerala. Will the jobless, who are waiting for their dream government jobs, forget how the government jobs appointing authority -- Public Service Commission has been made a non-entity. All these factors will be there in the minds of the electorate and we are all sure in the third week of May a new government of the Congress-led UDF would be sworn in," said Antony.

 

He came down heavily on the Vijayan government for taking the entire fishing community for a ride and had it not been for an agile Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, the seas of Kerala would have been sold to a US based company.

 

"Can anyone forget how the office of Vijayan was misused and his own principal secretary is in jail in the gold smuggling case," added Antony.

 

He said after five years of misrule, he can sense from the information that he has been able to gather that in the best interests of the Communist Party in the country and the Communists, Vijayan should be voted out.

 

"Just look what happened in West Bengal after they ruled for three decades, that party has disappeared. So I am sure that the real Communists wish and want that for their future, Vijayan should not be given another term," said Antony.

 

Antony will be campaigning for the UDF candidates. Political commentators say that he has always been able to make an impact when it came to soliciting votes.