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After emphatic win in Kerala, Left mulls national-level alternative against BJP
During the recently-concluded assembly polls, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) won 99 out of 140 assembly seats in the state.
Taking a cue from the 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 the national level, party’s acting secretary A Vijayaraghavan said on Tuesday in the state capital.
During the recently-concluded assembly polls, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) won 99 out of 140 assembly seats in the state, 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.
Talking to newsmen after the party’s secretariat meeting, Vijayaraghavan said the new government will be sworn in after the Left Democratic Front (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. Party workers have been asked to lit lamps in their homes while observing Covid-19 protocol.
He said the “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 as well,” he said, adding the victory was clinched in trying times.
Vijayaraghavan said all opposition parties, including the Congress and the BJP, had teamed up against the government and many central agencies pitched their tents in the state, 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, adding that the party tried its best to weaken secular forces in Kerala and its national leaders were also part of it. Vijayaraghavan was referring to the Gandhi family’s intense campaign in the state.
“The Congress and the BJP were in a race to raise baseless allegations against the government. At one point, both were talking in a 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 alleged a CPI(M)-BJP nexus to weaken the Congress in Kerala. “A close look at the results show in many seats, the NDA’s vote share has gone down. Most of these votes have shifted to the LDF camp. We suspect it is a part of a conspiracy of the BJP’s pet “Congress mukt” campaign,” he said in Thiruvananthapuram. BJP state president K Surendran denied this, saying the Left successfully injected a fear psychosis among minority communities that led to the consolidation of their votes in its favour.
