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After Kerala win, Left to draw up fresh national plan against BJP
Thiruvananthapuram: Taking a leaf out of emphatic victory in Kerala, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will take a fresh initiative to build an alternative against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at national level, said party acting secretary A Vijayaraghavan on Tuesday in the state capital
Thiruvananthapuram:
Taking a leaf out of emphatic victory in Kerala, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will take a fresh initiative to build an alternative against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at national level, said party acting secretary A Vijayaraghavan on Tuesday in the state capital.
The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) won 99 out of 140 assembly seats in the state on Sunday, bucking a four-decade-old political tradition of oscillating the Congress and CPI(M)-led fronts alternately. In the Left surge, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) drew a blank in Kerala.
Talking to reporters after the party secretariat meeting, Vijayaraghavan said the new government will be sworn in after the LDF meeting on May 17. “Due to pandemic situation, strict restrictions are in force. Let the situation ease a bit, there is no hurry,” he said, adding the LDF will observe a victory day on May 7. Workers have been asked to lit lamps in their homes observing Covid -19 protocol.
He said “historic victory” in Kerala has given a fresh impetus to secular and democratic forces in the country and the party will take initiative to build a new alternative against communal forces. “Our victory and high vote share are historic. It is a victory of the Left and secular forces. This victory has national relevance also,” Vijayaraghavan said, adding the victory was clinched in trying times.
He said all opposition parties, including the Congress and BJP, had teamed up against the government and many central agencies had pitched their tents in the state and intimidated officials and others but their designs fell flat with people’s mandate.
He said the loss in Kerala will hasten the fall of the Congress in the country. Vijayaraghavan added that the Congress tried its best to weaken secular forces in Kerala and its national leaders were also part of it, while referring to Gandhi family’s intense campaign in the state. “The Congress and BJP were in a race to raise baseless allegations against the government. At one point both were talking in single voice. They also tried to sabotage some of the welfare programmes. People have given them a befitting reply,” he said.
Meanwhile, outgoing opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has alleged a CPI(M)-BJP nexus to weaken the Congress in Kerala. “A close look at the results show in many seats NDA vote share has gone down. Most of these votes have shifted to the LDF camp. We suspect it a part of a conspiracy of the BJP’s pet “Congress-mukt” campaign,” he said in Thiruvananthapuram. BJP state president K Surendran has denied Chennithala’s claims, saying the Left successfully injected a fear psychosis among minority communities that led to consolidation of their votes in its favour.
