CPI(M)-Congress secret pact in Kerala to check BJP growth
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (January 25: HS) : A secret pact has been formalised between the Congress and the CPI(M) to check the growth of the BJP in Kerala. The upcoming assembly election will see the operationalisation of this deal.
According to sources in the CPI(M) and the Congress, both the major parties would work secretly to ensure the defeat of the candidates to be fielded by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in Kerala.
The CPI(M)-Congress secret deal to defeat the BJP is nothing new in Kerala. Though both the Congress and Communists were in alliance all over India , their join mission in Kerala was kept as a secret till recently. The “Tame Lotus” mission came out during the 2019 Lok Sabha election when the CPI(M) openly voted for the Congress candidates in most of the 20 constituencies in Kerala. It was reported that the victory of M A Arif, the lone CPI(M) candidate who sailed through from Alappuzha shocked the party’s bosses because the Congress had been told in advance by the Marxists that they would ensure the victory of all the candidates fielded by the Grand Old Party.
The CPI(M) and the Congress fear that any advancements made by the BJP in Kerala would lead to the vanquishing of these parties. It is to convince the critics of the CPI(M)-Congress alliance that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan led Kerala Government decided to hand over the Solar Sex scandal case probe to the CBI.
Saritha Nair, a Marxist activist who befriended many Congress leaders in the State had alleged that she was sexually molested by the party top brass during the tenure of Oommen Chandi as Chief Minister (2011-2016). The list of accused include Oommen Chandi, the then Chief Minister, K C Venugopal, the reigning retainer of the Nehru-Gandhi family, Haiby Eden and Addor Prakash (both MPs) and A P Abdullakutty (national vice-president of the BJP).
Though the State police had held a probe into the scam they could not come out with evidence linking Chandi to the scam. The courts in the State had quashed all the cases filed by Saritha Nair accusing the above mentioned people of sexually molesting her. The present move is to divert the attention of the people in the State to something innocuous from this sensational charge.
The Congress is likely to vote for the CPI(M)-led candidates in constituencies where the Marxists are strong. Even if the polls throw out a hung assembly, the Marxists have plans to forge a post-poll alliance with the Congress to keep the BJP off the corridors of power.
