Kochi: The Congress party claimed to have strength it never possessed and, by splitting the secular votes, helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win recent elections despite the farmer protests causing a significant blowback for the party, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday.
In an article published in local media ahead of the CPI(M)’s Kerala state conference in Kollam, starting Thursday, Vijayan said that if the Congress does not work to include and accommodate other parties, which can defeat the BJP, the result seen in the local Delhi election will be repeated in states where polls are due in the next couple of years.
Leader of opposition (LoP) in the Kerala Assembly VD Satheesan rejected Vijayan’s allegations. “In Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) refused to join hands with the Congress. So, as a national party, the Congress also contested the elections. The chief minister’s party also contested elections there. If it had not contested, its 0.4% vote-share could have gone to AAP. This is double-standards,” Satheesan said.
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{{/usCountry}}In the article, Vijayan said, “In states like Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the farmer protests had caused significant blowback for BJP in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. And yet, it was the Congress policies that led to BJP coming to power in those states. It claimed to have the strength it never possessed. It stood against the accumulation of secular votes. And so, the Congress adopted a role that worked against the public sentiments (to unseat the BJP). By splitting the secular votes, it helped the BJP win in those states.”
Citing instances where Left parties played a key role in significant events in the country, such as the protests against the draconian farm laws, the agitation against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the legal battle to reclaim the state status of Jammu and Kashmir, and the fight in the Supreme Court over the Electoral Bonds case, Vijayan said that Left-aligned parties are at the forefront of policy debates, elections, and legal battles in the country to counter the advances of the Sangh Parivar and other allied forces.
“A classic example of the Congress’ arrogance towards other parties fighting the BJP was the Delhi Assembly elections. Despite having won no seats in the previous two elections, the Congress was fixated on defeating the Aam Aadmi Party,” Vijayan further said, accusing the Congress party of adopting an ‘arrogant’ approach towards regional parties opposing BJP.
Vijayan said the ECI’s data on Delhi election result shows that the Congress’ stand helped the BJP win 14 seats and cited the examples of constituencies like Timarpur, Greater Kailash and Mehrauli where the Congress candidate’s votes were more than the winning margin between BJP and AAP.
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“The Congress may have had differences with the AAP leadership. But it should have tried to sort out those differences and work together to defeat the BJP. Congress says something but its actions indicate otherwise. How can secular parties trust the Congress? Parties like the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) must ponder,” he added.
“In Kerala, the Congress and the larger United Democratic Front (UDF) coalition are stitching alliances with minority communal forces like the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the Jamaat-e-Islami. The temporary electoral gains that the Congress is targeting will only indirectly help the BJP-Sangh Parivar forces in the long-term,” he added.
Satheesan hit back saying, “When has Rahul Gandhi compromised with BJP? It’s the CPM which has made compromises with BJP. The CPM’s new finding is that the BJP is not a fascist party. This discovery comes at a time when Congress and other parties have termed the Narendra Modi government as a fascist regime.”