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Kerala's Cong alleges CPM-BJP alliance
Apprehensive of a backlash in the by-election to be held in Piravam Assembly constituency in six months' time, the Congress in Kerala on Tuesday tried to take anticipatory bail politically by accusing the CPI(M) and BJP of forging an “unholy alliance” between them.
State Congress president Ramesh Chennithala said in Thiruvananthapuram that a joint CPI(M)-BJP agenda was being formulated in Kerala with the intention of “opposing, weakening and defeating” his party. He said that the recent developments in Kerala politics with regard to the two parties were indicative of such an alliance against the Congress.
“If the two parties, which are in perpetual battle against each other and which are prompting their workers to involve in politics of murder against each other, have decided to work together they should show the boldness to announce it openly to the people,” Chennithala, also an MLA of the Congress party, told newsmen.
Asked whether the allegation was being made out of fear of a possible defeat in the by-poll, he answered in the negative, adding that victory for the Congress-led ruling UDF in that constituency was certain. A by-poll in Piravam was necessitated by the death of sitting member TM Jacob of the Kerala Congress (Jacob) who was Food Minister in the UDF Cabinet.
Chennithala said the support the BJP had extended to CPI(M)'s State committee member MV Jayarajan when he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in a contempt of court case was proof of the alliance between the two parties. Jayarajan was punished for calling two High Court judges nincompoops over a June, 2010 verdict banning roadside meetings.
State BJP president V Muraleedharan had criticised the court's decision not to suspend the punishment awarded to Jayarajan to give him time to file appeal in the Supreme Court against the sentence saying that it was not proper on the part of the courts to think that they could do anything they liked.
According to observers, Chennithala's allegation of a new-found alliance between the CPI(M) and the BJP may seem credible to some people in the context of the reports that the BJP has adopted a new political strategy of projecting Congress as its main opponent in Kerala and of giving up its “blind hostility” towards the Marxists.
The BJP is of the view that the Congress has been cashing in on its non-ideological conflicts with the CPI(M). The meeting had also decided to take the Piravam by-poll seriously as part of an effort to play an enhanced role in the State politics.
Analysts say that the Congress and the UDF it leads have reasons to worry about the Piravam by-poll especially as TM Jacob had won the seat by a margin of just 157 votes in the April election over the score of CPI(M)'s MJ Jacob. The stand of the BJP, whose candidate MN Madhu had bagged 4,234 votes in April polls, will be crucial in deciding the by-poll outcome in Piravam.
The by-poll's result is of immense importance to the Government as it is presently surviving on a wafer-thin majority of just two seats in the 140-member State Assembly. At present, the Congress-led UDF has 70 elected members excluding Speaker G Karthikeyan in the Assembly while the CPI(M)-led Opposition LDF is occupying 68 seats.
