LDF seeks to counter UDF’s anti-govt. narrative by spotlighting the ‘Congress-BJP pact’ in the Palakkad Assembly bypoll

LDF convenor says the ruling front would spotlight Congress’s ‘treacherous right-ward drift’ in Kerala and its willingness to collude with communal forces on either side of the religious spectrum for electoral dividends.

The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) has sought to foil the Opposition’s attempt to cast the byelections in Palakkad and Chelakkara Assembly constituencies as a barometer of the “growing public disaffection with the controversy-ridden” Pinarayi Vijayan government. 

Instead, it has sought to push the current controversies dogging the government to the backburner by attempting to mould the byelection battle as an existential political struggle against the “Congress-backed” rising majority and minority communalism in Kerala. 

The LDF’s tactical gambit appeared as a political riposte to Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) attempt to weaponise the current controversy involving the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader P.P. Divya and the accusations raised by independent legislator P.V. Anvar against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s office (CMO) at the hustings.

LDF convenor T.P. Ramakrishnan, who chaired a meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday (October 21,2024), told reporters that the ruling front would spotlight Congress’s “treacherous right-ward drift” in Kerala and its willingness to collude with communal forces on either side of the religious spectrum for electoral dividends.

He said the LDF would highlight Congress’s conspiratorial silence about the Sangh Parivar-led Central government’s attempt to strangulate Kerala financially, denying mandatory aid for landslide-hit Wayanad and attempt to foment communal polarisation in Kerala.

“Other issues are secondary. The people will decide if the byelections are a litmus test of the LDF government’s public approval,” he said. 

Mr. Ramakrishnan said the Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) were the primary foes in the Palakkad Assembly byelection.

‘Cong.-BJP trade-off’

He said Congress had imported a relatively lightweight political candidate to prop up a weakened BJP in Palakkad but to no avail. “It’s a trade-off for BJP’s help in Vadakara Lok Sabha elections,” he alleged.

Mr. Ramakrishnan claimed the “barter” has alienated secular Congress workers in Palakkad. “They were abandoning the Congress in droves and aligning with the LDF. Moreover, the BJP in Kerala was hopelessly faction-ridden,” Mr. Ramakrishnan said. He termed Mr. Anvar a spent political force with no bearing on the bypolls. 

Mr. Ramakrishnan said the CPI(M) saw no ideological incongruency in tapping P. Sarin, an expelled Congress leader and the government’s social media bugbear for a long time, as the LDF’s candidate in Palakkad. “There are no permanent friends or enemies in politics,” he added. 

Published - October 21, 2024 07:42 pm IST