Both the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and the Congress engage in accusing each other of having an electoral tie-up with the BJP in any elections only to conceal their hypocrisy of having an open alliance between them in many other States, including Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, BJP State general secretary M.T. Ramesh has said.
“Their leaders employ this tactic against each other to run away from real political issues. In Tamil Nadu, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury is star campaigner for the Congress and the IUML. Similarly, the Congress leaders are actively electioneering for the CPI(M) candidates. The fact is that they are in alliance and are united in the polls,” he told The Hindu.
Mr. Ramesh, who is in the fray from the Kozhikode North Assembly constituency, said the BJP would make a tremendous impact in the coming Assembly polls. “The people are fed-up with the politics of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF). A new alternative political situation favouring the BJP has evolved in the State. So the party has fielded candidates from different walks of the life,” he said.
The focus of the BJP in these polls, he said was that Kerala desperately needed a change and that the State should travel on the development path envisaged by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre. “We are presenting before the people to accept the development and welfare schemes implemented by the BJP-led government in the country in the last six years years,” he said.
Stressing that the objective of the BJP is to form a government in the State, Mr. Ramesh said that the party considered the Congress-led UDF as well as the CPI(M)-led LDF on the same page. “However, the approach of the party towards them also depends on the political anatomy in each Assembly constituency,” he said.
On the Sabarimala issue, he said the BJP would not make it as a dominant issue in the elections. “Sabarimala is already on the minds of the people. It is the CPI(M) and the Congress that attempted to rake up the issue. This will be a setback for them. The devotees are well aware which party stood for them,” Mr. Ramesh said.
