In a claim that could cause a mild flutter in political circles, UDF constituent Janadhipatya Samrakshana Samiti (JSS) leader K R Gouriamma today said the LDF had invited her to join the front as its chief ministerial candidate before the 2011 assembly polls.
Gouriamma, a firebrand Marxist leader who was expelled from the party in 1990s, said she rejected the offer and asked those who approached her to explain as to why she was thrown out of the CPI(M) in the first place.
The nonagenarian leader, who had been minister in most Left governments right since 1957, made this claim at a district meeting of the JSS, which she floated after her the expulsion from the CPI(M).
She regretted that despite spurning the LDF's offer and staying firm with the Congress-led UDF the latter could not ensure her victory in the assembly polls.
Since the 2011 assembly polls, when the JSS failed to win a single seat, Gouriamma loyalists have been at loggerheads with the UDF, though the party has not yet officially severed relations with the ruling coalition.
